The Syndicat des cols bleus regroupés de Montréal (CUPE 301) was angered upon learning that the City will go ahead with privatizing almost all of its health maintenance services. The buildings affected include City Hall, the head office of the Service de sécurité incendie and some municipal workshops.
The City of Montreal, however, pledged last May 19 to turn to its blue-collar workers before “calling on external resources.”
“Unfortunately, the City and the mayor did not live up to their word. No rigorous process was followed, and no evaluations or cost comparisons preceded this decision, which was apparently made for ideological reasons and announced right in the middle of summer,” said CUPE representative Hans Marotte.
The union pointed out that all of the workers required were available, since around a hundred blue-collar workers were still on standby due to the health crisis.
“We are convinced that the City is able to do its own health maintenance itself at a cost equal to or less than contract workers. As a union, we are able to make this possible,” stated Hans Marotte.
“The mayor often had nice things to say about blue-collar workers, as she did in her victory speech in November 2017 or throughout the spring of 2020. In a memo dated last May 14, her administration pledged not to privatize cleaning and janitorial services. We are now calling on the mayor to bring her comments into line with her decisions,” he added.
“Another promise broken by Ms. Plante would have a very adverse effect on the harmonious relations we have been attempting to develop with the City of Montreal for the past several years,” said Marotte.