Employees of the Quebec Cannabis Society affiliated with the Confederation of National Trade Unions (SQDC-CSN) declared a one-day strike on Saturday in about fifteen branches.
“Our negotiations are still stalling on the issue of wages and the employer has still not tabled a decent salary offer,” said union president Maxime Nadeau in a press release.
“Our entry hourly rate is $17.12 per hour and it takes us about eight years to reach the 12th step, which is set at $21.23 per hour. This is why we always claim parity with those who do substantially the same work as us, ”the employees of the Société des alcools du Québec, he added.
The strike day is taken from a bank of five days voted on June 5 by the union members. It was triggered “during a weekend when traffic is very high, at a time when our expertise is in high demand,” explained Mr. Nadeau.
“We are once again calling on the employer to settle this negotiation as soon as possible. The Treasury Board must give clear mandates to the SQDC as soon as possible to reach an agreement satisfactory to the parties,” said the vice-president of the Federation of service employees affiliated with the CSN, Stéphanie Gratton, in the press release.
Unionized members of CUPE, affiliated with the FTQ, are already on an indefinite strike. They first walked off the job for a few hours in April, before launching an indefinite strike on May 20.
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