Hundreds of municipal workers staged a noisy protest Monday morning as Municipal Affairs Minister Pierre Moreau arrived for a meeting in Laval.

The employees honked horns and blared sirens as they drove city vehicles around Laval's city hall.

About half an hour before the meeting was about to start on-duty police officers blocked the street so only protesters had access to city hall.

Protesters are upset over Bill 3 and the reforms it will make to pension plans across Quebec, and Marc Ranger, the spokesperson for the coalition of municipal unions, promised more protests.


"There will be protests like this across Quebec and everywhere the minister goes, everywhere the premier goes, they will see us," said Ranger.

"There are pension plans that are in bad shape, ten times worse than ours, so this double standard is unfair."

Most municipal pension plans are underfunded, and the bill still under debate in the National Assembly would force municipalities and unionized employees to spend two years negotiating how to ensure they are fully funded.

“We don't want to change anything concerning the basic principle of the bill and any amendment that would go against that would be rejected,” said Moreau.

Unions argue the government is putting the onus on employees to make up the gap caused by governments not contributing enough.

"They are trying to steal and tear apart our past collective agreements. This is unacceptable and illegal," said Ranger, who said a50-50 split is a way of getting workers to pay for pension plan deficits.

“Fifty-fifty split for the past deficit? That's not fair, because they had the full responsibility. They were the people making decisions over the pension plans, not us,” he said.

Ranger said the unions have learned from what happened in Montreal earlier this year, after firefighters and supporters stormed City Hall during a council meeting.

That protest ended with dozens of people facing charges and suspensions, and six firefighters fired by the city of Montreal.

"We need to be careful, the actions we take, but we're going to make sure that we stay strong," said Ranger.

"We're going to have a good fight but you know what? We're going to have a smart fight."

As Moreau started to exit Laval city hall by car, protestors tried to make themselves seen and heard, blowing whistles and waving placards in front of this vehicle.

Even though it was a peaceful demonstration, Laval police officers were obliged to clear a path so the municipal affairs minister could leave.