Faced with the risk of a reduction in service for 2022, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is trying to lower the pressure internally. Questioned by worried employees, the organization held a last-minute meeting last week to reassure them.
The duty obtained a recording of this meeting, held on October 19 via webcast. We hear the general manager of the STM, Luc Tremblay, answer questions from employees for nearly an hour.
“I know it can be very insecure,” he says, referring to the potential job cuts being considered by the employer.
According to information gathered by The duty, the carrier has worked on at least three service reduction scenarios for 2022. The most moderate avenue would involve the elimination of nearly 200 jobs. But the STM also assessed an extreme scenario, which would cut its workforce by more than 1,100 professionals, including around 700 bus drivers.
All this to allow the parastatal organization to avoid swimming in the red next year. The STM has calculated that it will have to find more than $ 60 million to balance its budget in 2022. Without emergency funds, it will have no choice but to reduce the use of metro trains and buses, argues its General manager.
No layoffs
Unsurprisingly, the news is causing noise internally. In the webcast obtained by The duty, Mr. Tremblay receives several questions and comments from worried employees: “How long does the STM plan to hold out for?” “,” We are still talking about cuts to 200 positions when you say you do not want to lay off “,” what about non-unionized employees? “
For long minutes, Luc Tremblay maintains that he wants to avoid departures at all costs.
“If ever we do not manage to get help for all kinds of reasons, I reassure you: we have always said that we will maintain the collective agreements on guarantees against layoffs. It is always possible to make adjustments through attrition, ”says the general manager of the STM.
“We will not lay people off,” he repeats.
Even the attrition scenario does not light up the STM, which still hopes for a lifeline from its financial partners. “This is the scenario we don’t want,” Luc Tremblay reiterates to his employees.
“We are able to optimize”
The potential reductions in service that the transport company will have to face put Montreal unions on their guard. In mid-October, four of them co-signed a letter urging the carrier to make any adjustments necessary to maintain the offer.
“Montrealers must be assured that a bad surprise does not await them,” they wrote.
For its part, Quebec wants at all costs to avoid cuts to the STM. “We are able to optimize. To reduce certain costs, certain expenses, but I do not want us to reduce the service, ”Transport Minister François Bonnardel said Thursday during a press scrum.
In the race for mayor, each candidate has his solution. Monday, at the municipal debate broadcast at Radio-Canada, the outgoing mayor, Valérie Plante, reiterated her commitment to proceed with “acupuncture on certain lines”, without specifying whether her solution would have an impact on jobs.
His main opponent, Denis Coderre, hopes that the City will have the financial capacity to come to the aid of the operator. Otherwise, he sees only one realistic way to avoid service cuts: “cut 50% of the administrative services of the STM”.
None of the scenarios envisaged by the organization for 2022 mentioned such significant job cuts. Moreover, if the STM went ahead, it would be the drivers, operators and maintenance employees who would suffer first, according to documents consulted by The duty.