A potential transit strike in Montreal that threatened to halt bus and Metro services over the weekend has been averted following a last-minute agreement reached on Friday night between the city’s transit agency and the union representing bus drivers and Metro operators. As a result, regular service will be operational on Saturday and Sunday.
The union, SCFP 1983, representing bus drivers, Metro operators, and station agents, announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) after seven days of intense negotiations. Union president Frédéric Therrien stated that their objective was to achieve a negotiated agreement, which has now been accomplished. The agreement will undergo a voting process by the members as per the union’s regulations.
Both the STM’s board of directors and the union members must ratify the agreement. Details of the deal will not be disclosed until it is officially adopted. The STM’s CEO, Marie-Claude Léonard, mentioned that the agreement includes compromises from all parties while adhering to the financial framework. The resolution was praised for preventing a significant public disruption, as urged by Montreal’s new mayor, Soraya Martinez Ferrada.
Mayor Martinez Ferrada commended the collaborative efforts of the union and the STM to reach a resolution, emphasizing the importance of negotiations at the table. She expressed support for the negotiations and set a deadline of Nov. 15 to facilitate the process.
The mayor, drawing on her father’s experience as a longtime bus driver in Montreal, stressed the significance of unions negotiating employee working conditions. She believed that reaching an agreement promptly to prevent a strike was the appropriate course of action. The Montreal Metro and bus network’s closure for the weekend was avoided, following the approval of the two-day strike by Quebec’s labor tribunal.
Previously, the strike was set to proceed despite ongoing negotiations and unsuccessful attempts to expedite back-to-work legislation. Quebec’s Labour Minister Jean Boulet congratulated the STM and the union for resolving the dispute and canceling the strike. The union, representing approximately 4,500 STM employees, had highlighted chronic underfunding by the Legault government as a key factor in the conflict, emphasizing that such negotiations typically conclude without disruptions.