MONTREAL -- If you've spotted Montreal fare inspectors wearing non-regulation camouflage pants as of late, we now know why: they are protesting the STM's plans to implement split shifts as part of their next collective agreement.
Kevin Grenier, head of the Fraternite des constables et inspecteurs de la STM, said the plan to have inspectors work 12-hour shifts with a two-hour break in the middle of the shift is damaging to the employees' work-life balance.
"It's totally unacceptable," Grenier said, adding that the 170 inspectors will wear camouflage pants until a new schedule is agreed upon by both sides. The decision is both a legal pressure tactic and one that was voted on by the union's members, Grenier said.
The protest pants are nothing new to the eyes of Montrealers: Montreal police donned camouflage, hot pink, zebra-striped and other non-regulation pants from the summer of 2014 through much of 2017 as they negotiated a new collective agreement and protested pension reforms introduced by the Couillard government.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
