Five ferries operated by the Société des ferry du Québec (STQ) will be disrupted by a strike on June 21 and 22, while navigation officers and engineering officers will begin to use the 10-day strike mandate they have just adopted. .
The crossings concerned are those of Quebec / Lévis, Matane / Godbout, Tadoussac / Baie-Sainte-Catherine, L’Isle-aux-Coudres / Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive, as well as Sorel / Saint-Ignace-de- Loyola.
The Steelworkers union, which represents 150 workers in these negotiations, proposed maintaining minimal service at the L’Isle-aux-Coudres and Tadoussac crossings, where the ferry is the only possible link.
The other three sleepers would therefore be completely paralyzed during the strike days. However, it will be up to the Administrative Labor Tribunal to determine the level of service required during the strike for all the ferries concerned.
In a press release, the union indicated that the strike days of June 21 and 22 will be the first two used under a 10-day strike mandate which was adopted by 93% of the union members who spoke out.
Salaries and flexibility
The main issue in the negotiations concerns salaries, while the union deplores that its members earn approximately $10 per hour less than other officers with comparable certificates.
“Salaries are not competitive at the Société des Ferriers compared to what is offered elsewhere in the maritime sector. The STQ itself pays two to three times more than what it offers its own officers for agency employees,” denounced the president of USW Local 9599, Captain Simon Carbonneau Graton.
The union also criticizes the employer for having recently introduced into the negotiations a requirement for “flexibility” which, according to it, is not well defined.