The effects of the city’s blue-collar workers’ strike were already apparent three days into the 40-day series of rotating strikes.
Residents on Beaconsfield St., near Sherbrooke St. in southwest Montreal, put bags of garbage out Tuesday, only to find them sitting in the same spots Wednesday morning.
The strikes, which will rotate through the city’s boroughs on a daily basis, are a pressure tactic from Montreal’s 5,000 blue-collar employees, who have been working without a contract for two years. Workers are asking for a salary increase of close to 10 per cent over four years, and for the city to give fewer contracts to private firms.
Mayor Gérald Tremblay said the demands will cost the city $100 million, which he says is too much. Under Essential Services Council rules, workers cannot compromise the safety of any person in the city; snow must be cleared if nine centimetres or more accumulates, and crews must continue to salt city roads.
Borough officials in Mercier8212;Hochelaga-Maisonneuve filed a complaint with the Essential Services Council Jan. 28, after two of the eight workers requested to salt icy roads did not show up. The work was carried out following a conference call between the union, city and council.
The rotating strikes have already passed through Côte-des-Neiges8212;Notre-Dame-de-Gr’ce, Saint-Laurent, Mercier8212;Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Plateau8212;Mont-Royal, Outremont and ÃŽle-Bizard8212;Sainte-Geneviève. Strikes will continue until March 5.
