After lengthy negotiations and multiple transit strikes, maintenance workers for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de Montr\u00e9al have ratified a new five-year collective agreement.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, STM employees voted 86 per cent in favour of a proposal put forward by a mediator, ending a more than two-year impasse between the transit agency and the union representing its workers, the Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration des syndicats nationaux (CSN). The STM\u2019s board of directors also approved the deal.<\/p>\n
Since last June, the STM\u2019s 2,400 maintenance workers have held four limited strikes. The first three strikes<\/a> \u2014 in June, September and November \u2014 cut all bus and m\u00e9tro service outside morning and afternoon rush hours and the late-night shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n Terms of the new agreement include a 17.5 per cent wage increase over five years for trades workers, and a 16 per cent increase for support staff, along with improvements to the banked overtime system and the grievance and arbitration process, according to a statement from the CSN<\/a>. The mediator submitted their recommendations on March 24, one month after maintenance workers threatened a fifth strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThese negotiations were anything but easy,\u201d the union\u2019s statement quoted president Bruno Jeanotte as saying, adding they had to fight against the government\u2019s disinterest in public transit throughout the negotiations. The union also says it curbed most of the STM\u2019s demands for concessions, particularly about subcontracting to non-STM workers for maintenance.<\/p>\n According to CSN president Caroline Senneville, the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government is largely to blame for the drawn-out negotiations, after promising to use new back-to-work legislation if the workers went on another strike.<\/p>\n \u201cBy threatening to use Bill 14, it invited the STM to sit on its hands rather than negotiate with the union,\u201d the statement quoted Senneville as saying.<\/p>\n This is the fourth collective agreement adopted in recent months for STM employees, according to a statement from the transit agency<\/a>, after deals with unions representing administrative staff<\/a>, professionals<\/a>, and bus drivers, m\u00e9tro operators and station agents<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI am very pleased that the members have ratified the agreement,\u201d a statement from CEO Marie-Claude L\u00e9onard said. \u201cWe chose to prioritize a negotiated settlement, which is always preferable for maintaining positive labour relations. I commend the joint efforts of both parties to respect the financial framework through compromises on all sides.\u201d<\/p>\n Unions for security personnel and office clerks have been without a contract since January. \u201cIn both cases, negotiations began in 2025 and discussions are ongoing,\u201d the STM says.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After lengthy negotiations and multiple transit strikes, maintenance workers for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de transport de Montr\u00e9al have ratified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-633315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}