A Montreal business owner said one of his employees was threatened by blue collar workers when he was hired to remove protest stickers from city vehicles and property.
Solutions-Graffiti is one of several companies hired to remove the stickers -- part of the ongoing Bill 3 protests against pension reform. Owner Sebastien Pitre said it’s become a problem for his employees following the threat.
“They told him that they are going to kick his ass. So he was very, very scared. You know, one guy against 20 guys,” said Pitre, adding that he's never had a problem with city workers before and didn’t intend to speak up until the moment his company's property was damaged.
“Yesterday morning we saw that one of the trailers that we own had been destroyed. They busted the tires, they ripped all the stickers around, and they scratched all the paint and put their own stickers on top of it,” he said.
That type of harassment is unacceptable, said union coalition spokesperson Marc Ranger.
“The coalition of course, we're never going to say that we agree with intimidation. Some people may be angry out there but we need to keep calm,” he said.
The union is looking into the matter.
Since his ordeal has become public, Pitre said he has received threatening phone calls at the office.
“They’re saying that, ‘You’d better never come here’ and all kinds of stuff like that,” he said, adding that his employee has filed a complaint with police.
The company owner says he plans to send the union the bill for his damaged trailer, but doubts they'll pay.
