Several dozen union members from the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), on an indefinite general strike since November 23, blocked an entrance to the Port of Montreal on Thursday morning to denounce the slowness of negotiations with the Treasury Board.
A similar action took place at the Port of Quebec, where strikers gathered on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard.
These demonstrations were held the day after their union rejected the most recent offer from Quebec.
Waving flags in the colors of their union, the strikers began to block the main entrance to the Port of Montreal, at the entrance to Boucherville and Notre-Dame streets, near Highway 25, a little before 6 a.m.
A long line of trucks subsequently formed on Notre-Dame Street. Several of them did not hesitate to honk their horns in support of the strikers.
Protesters began to disperse toward the end of rush hour.
In an interview on Radio-Canada radio, the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert, explained that union members were gradually increasing their pressure tactics and were now opting for “economic targets which will perhaps speak more to the government than others targets we took [es] in the past “.
“The only language that the government seems to understand is the language of money,” previously argued the vice-president for political life at the FAE, Patrick Bydal, when questioned about the reasons that prompted the strikers to target the Port of Montreal.
Mélanie Hubert reiterates that the striking teachers still aim to obtain a new employment contract before the holidays, even if she agrees that “it will be difficult”, given the pace of the negotiations, “not sustained enough at the moment” .
The FAE is ready to negotiate during the holiday period, added Mme Hubert, deploring that the Legault government “let the conflict drag on for so long”.
More details will follow.