The city of Montreal and its blue collar workers union are both being forced to pay for damages stemming from a week-long strike during a 2004 ice storm that left hundreds injured.
The workers refused to salt or lay sand on the city's sidewalks during the strike, leaving them icy and dangerous for pedestrians.
Judge Danielle Grenier ruled last week that the city must help the union pay $2 million in damages to victims, but both parties say they plan to appeal the decision.
Grace Biondi was one of the residents who felt the brunt of that strike when she slipped and fell while walking to the Royal Victoria Hospital.
"I had a concussion, and I also suffered from headaches and other problems that stopped me from working for awhile," Biondi told CTV Montreal's Catherine Sherrifs.
The Essential Services Council ruled the blue collars had to go back to work, but the union refused. Of the hundreds of people who suffered some bumps and bruises over that week, 70 were injured badly enough to sue the union, which was ordered last Friday to pay $2 million.
The judgment says the city provoked the strike by implementing an unpopular dispatch system, which is why the court ordered the city to pay as well.
"Some things that happened should not have happened back then at that moment," said Montreal spokesman Gonzalo Nunez. "Therefore we cannot be held responsible for their behaviour."
The city and the blue collar union have 30 days to appeal. If the judgment still stands after that process, anyone who can prove they were injured during the strike of 2004 can also be compensated.
