MONTREAL – Less than two months after their last contract expired, members of the Port of Montreal’s Longshoremen’s Union ratified a new six-year collective agreement at a general meeting held February 20. With 56 per cent of members voting in favour, the new collective agreement will determine working conditions until the end of 2018.
“We can qualify these negotiations as historic,” said Denis Wolfe, president of the Port of Montreal’s Longshoremen’s Union. “Never in the history of our work relations have we succeeded in coming to an agreement as quickly as this. The last contract expired on December 31, 2012.”
The new agreement will see salary increases of 1 per cent in the first year, 2 per cent in the each of the four following years, and between 2 per cent and a maximum of 3 per cent, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), in the last year.
“With this new collective agreement, job security is maintained for those longshoremen who are currently employed,” said André Racette Jr., CUPE representative. “As for new longshoremen, there is a slight modification in the changes in the progression of the pay scale in order to ensure that the cost of job security is viable.”
“There is also good news for the Port,” said Denis Wolfe. “We were also successful in modifying the work schedule in order to ensure a better flow of traffic in the Port.”
CUPE, which has approximately 110,000 members in Quebec, is the major union in Quebec for longshoremen. Longshoremen at the Ports of Montreal, Quebec City, Matane, Contrecoeur, Sorel-Tracy, Bécancour and Trois-Rivières are affiliated with CUPE.
For more information:
André Racette Jr., CUPE Representative, cell: 514 708-1492
Lisa Djevahirdjian, CUPE Information, cell: 514 831-3815