Employees of the Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout ferry have launched a strike until August 2, excluding next weekend. In addition, the 70 workers of the Sorel–Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola ferry have given themselves an expanded mandate to intensify their pressure tactics.
“Despite the sending of strike notices on June 7, negotiations have made little progress at the Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ) in recent weeks. This is why workers at the Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout ferry will be striking from July 22 to 26 and from July 29 to August 2,” said the Fédération des employées et employées de services publics (FEESP-CSN) in a press release sent Monday afternoon.
“We are not resorting to strike action with a light heart,” emphasizes the spokesperson for the CSN unions of the STQ, Patrick St-Laurent. “By announcing our strike days more than a month in advance, we thought that the STQ would take the negotiations seriously and that we could reach an agreement before today. That said, we are ready to act to put pressure on in order to obtain a good settlement.”
The two parties negotiated for the last time on Thursday. The union side asked the Ministry of Labour to appoint a mediator-conciliator to the case, since “the negotiations are stumbling over a long list of setbacks that the STQ wants to impose on employees.”
Wages are at the heart of the labor dispute.
“The salary gap between the parties is very large, particularly for those who earn the least at the STQ, since the employer’s current offers do not allow salaries to be brought back to a competitive level compared to comparable employers,” indicates the FEESP-CSN.
Unlimited strike mandate at the Sorel–Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola crossing
Furthermore, the 70 workers of the Sorel–Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola ferry, members of local section 9599 of the Syndicat des Métallos, have given themselves an expanded mandate to intensify their pressure tactics.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Access to the ferry linking Sorel-Tracy and Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola
They voted unanimously in favour of an indefinite strike.
The negotiating committee and the Société des traversiers du Québec (STQ) were in conciliation on Monday.
The union hopes to “see a real willingness to negotiate on the part of the employer,” it said in a press release issued Monday. The negotiating committee emphasized that frustration is palpable among ferry employees.
“The slow pace of negotiations has deprived workers of thousands of dollars over the past 16 months, during which time they have been without a collective agreement,” said Alain Gendron, a member of the Ferry Metalworkers’ negotiating committee, adding that “the costs of gasoline, food and other necessities are also increasing for these workers.”
According to Ève-Lyne Renaud, also a member of the negotiating committee, “a salary catch-up is quickly necessary, especially since the clientele has doubled in recent years, which represents double the work for employees and double the income for the STQ, but nothing for employees.”
The union stresses that an unlimited strike “would affect not only the workers, but also the community and the users of this ferry.”
The employees went on strike last Friday at 7 a.m. and returned to work at 6:59 a.m. Monday.