Strike planned for November 15 and 16 | Martinez Ferrada is now putting pressure on STM drivers
After the end of the maintenance workers’ strike, the designated mayor of Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, is now putting pressure on metro and bus drivers, whose threat of walkout still looms for the weekend.
“We absolutely must stop taking this city hostage. And a complete strike this weekend, for me, is not possible. […] I am asking drivers to come forward today. Montrealers need predictability,” said M.me Martinez Ferrada, during a press scrum Wednesday morning.
The elected official must meet, later during the day, with the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet.
The latter indicated in the morning that he still intends to submit a legislative document to the National Assembly to advance the application of his law 14, due to the strike of bus drivers and metro operators which remains possible on November 15 and 16.
The latest news is that the metro and bus drivers’ union is still before the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) to determine the nature of essential services. However, an agreement remains possible in the coming days and an announcement could occur at any time.
By addressing Mr. Boulet directly, Mr.me Martinez Ferrada argued that we must “give space for this negotiation to move forward positively”, thus seeming to oppose the government’s desire to move forward with Law 14. This aims to prevent services to the population “from being disproportionately affected” during labor conflicts.
“By suspending the strike, we want to ensure that the law is not applied immediately and we want to continue to act at the table and reach a negotiated agreement,” explained the president of the Syndicat du transport de Montréal–CSN, Bruno Jeannotte.
Users will be able to come to metro stations and bus stops at any time starting this Wednesday, but the frequency of service will gradually return to normal during the day, due to the impacts of the strike. The STM estimates that its service will be completely restored as of Thursday.
