Montreal, Wednesday, September 21, 2011– The borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and the Syndicat des Cols bleus regroupés de Montréal, representing Montreal’s blue-collar workers, today signed a new global agreement on a skills borough, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the City of Montreal. This agreement will produce concrete improvements to citizen services, for example, by establishing different work schedules that meet the need for services while preserving the principle of the four-day workweek.Issues of outsourcing, work organization, staffing and labour movement were also the subject of an agreement.
This is the second borough, following the Plateau Mont-Royal, to have reached this agreement with the blue-collar union since the renewal of the collective agreement on October 6, 2010.
Union president Michel Parent is especially proud of this new partnership following in the wake of the new collective agreement, a partnership that will benefit the citizens of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.”I would like to commend the personal involvement of Mayor Réal Ménard at a critical point in the negotiations.His commitment to securing precarious jobs and his concrete steps towards recognizing the work of the blue-collar employees created a sense of trust and enabled us to reach an agreement after many months of negotiations, in great part thanks to his efforts.”
The union, however, continues to make representations for changes to the Charter of the City of Montreal in order to improve the organization of work beyond the artificial boundaries of the boroughs.Duplication, lack of coordination and multiple levels of decision-making are costing the citizens of Montreal, not to mention the historically high number of managers.
The Syndicat des Cols bleus regroupés de Montréal, CUPE local 301, represents some 7,500 blue-collar workers on the island of Montreal.