MONTREAL—Police marched in the streets Thursday morning to protest changes to their weekly schedule.
For the past year, the city has approved a pilot project that saw officers work three long shifts a week and have four days off. That pilot project is set to end on March 20 and the city has said it will not continue because it was too difficult to manage.
However the Police Brotherhood, the union which represents officers, says the altered shift is very popular and they will fight to keep it.
At 9:45 a.m. Thursday officers rallied in front of police headquarters on St-Urbain St. in downtown Montreal.
Yes, they did inform police of their protest route, which happened to be very short: from Place des Festivals to the corner of Ste-Catherine St. and St-Urbain St.
The union said the three-day workweek greatly improves the quality of life for officers and helps out their families.
However the city said managing the shorter workweek turned out to be a logistical mess, and resulted in an explosion of overtime costs.
Union chief Yves Francoeur disagreed, saying the excess overtime costs were actually the result of last year's atypical protests by student groups and people opposed to Bill 78.
"It's a win-win situation. It doesn't cost more," said Francoeur.
"They can't give us any report showing it costs more, and the report we have shows it costs less."
Francoeur also said returning to the old hours is the same as rolling the clock back to the 1970s, and his union took out full-page ads in newspapers on Thursday saying just that.
This takes place as the city and police officers negotiate a new contract.
Last week Mayor Michael Applebaum went public saying he had been threatened by Francoeur, who warned him that if Applebaum did not personally intervene he would be faced with protesting police officers and "personal attacks" in the media.
Applebaum says it was Police Chief Marc parent who recommended he cancel the pilot project and he says he has no intention of reversing his decision.
Francoeur denied those allegations.
