Hundreds marched in support of the 253 locked-out workers from Le Journal de Montréal on Saturday amidst icy wind and cold temperatures.
Carrying red balloons en masse, they marched from Parc Lafontaine along Mont-Royal Avenue before stopping in front of the newspaper’s headquarters on Frontenac Street. The protesters were calling for a settlement of the 22-month-old dispute between the paper and locked-out workers, and a modernization of provisions in Quebec’s labour code banning the use of strikebreakers in labour-management disputes.
The event was launched by the CSN, la Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, as part of a larger boycotting campaign that started last Oct. 19. Since then, the campaign has gathered almost 30,000 signatures and the support of 57 other syndicates and organizations.
