Longueuil white-collar workers on strike Wednesday and Thursday

A sign shows city hall in Longueuil, Que. on Monday, March 4, 2024. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)

White-collar workers at the City of Longueuil began a two-day strike on Wednesday morning.

The 1,200 white-collar workers are members of a local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which is affiliated to the FTQ. They include technicians, office workers, professionals and school crossing guards.

The City of Longueuil has said that, as a result of the strike on March 13 and 14, the resident service centre and administrative buildings are closed. The skating rinks and libraries are also closed. However, the indoor swimming pools are open.

According to CUPE, essential services, including municipal emergency services and school crossing guards, will continue to be provided.

The white-collar workers are demanding the same conditions as those granted to the city's blue-collar workers, i.e. a 10 per cent increase in the pay scale, as well as the four-day week. The union sees this as a question of "internal equity."

The city denies offering less to white-collar workers than to blue-collar workers.

City spokesperson Louis-Pascal Cyr said that the reason the city granted blue-collar workers a four-day week was for reasons of "flexibility," since it needed to have blue-collar workers on the regular schedule at weekends -- for snow clearance, for example. The need is not the same with white-collar workers.

While CUPE sees this as a question of "internal equity" between white-collar and blue-collar workers, the city believes it is being fair, offering "comparable" conditions, since the situation is different for the two groups of municipal employees.

The city continues to believe that "a negotiated solution remains possible" with CUPE, Cyr said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 13, 2024.