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Author Topic: Montreal transit workers strike
Mick
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2753

posted 17 November 2003 10:41 AM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Montreal transit workers strike

Web Posted | Nov 17 2003 08:01 AM EST
City hit by bus and metro strike

MONTREAL - For the first time in 14 years, Montrealers woke up to a transit strike Monday, after the 2,000 maintenance workers who keep the city's buses and subway running walked off off the job.

Pensions are the main stumbling block The union representing the workers called the strike after negotations failed Sunday night. The Montreal Transit Corporation's pension plan is the main issue separating the union and management. Under an agreement with the city's essential services council, the buses and metro will continue to run during peak hours Monday to Friday. The hours are: 5:30-9:00 a.m., 3:00-6:30 p.m., and 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. There will also be full service for disabled passengers. The transit corporation's executive director of planning and development, Robert Olivier, said that negotiators from both sides worked until late Sunday night to avert the strike. He said that a last-minute condition concerning pensions demanded by the union could not be overcome at the bargaining table. "They want to have more money, mainly concerning the pension plan," said Olivier.


From: Parkdale! | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mick
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2753

posted 19 November 2003 01:23 AM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Lack of an 'ouch factor' might prolong transit strike

This mess in bus and métro service could last a long time.

That's the risk of these public-transit "half strikes" - walkouts in which strikers must, under provincial law, provide "essential service" for parts of the day. The last time these same maintenance workers used the tactic, in 1987, they did so for 27 days. The other time a half strike crippled the system was three years before that, and it lasted 30 days.

Any strike that provides partial services has a built-in problem. Although the services diminish the pain to the public, they also tend to protract it.

Because 9-to-5 workers can still commute and keep the economy more or less rolling, there's less public pressure on the transit corporation - and the elected officials who oversee it - to settle the dispute speedily. And because the transit corporation continues to pay strikers for their six hours' work a day, instead of the normal eight, there's less financial pressure on the union to settle.



From: Parkdale! | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged

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