MONTREAL -- Some 125 union members at Montreal's Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery have agreed to a 10-day strike bank by 96 per cent in an electronic vote held by secret ballot.
Patrick Chartrand, vice president of the union, reports that employees have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2018, and in negotiations since November 2019.
The union says management is citing financial problems to justify its demands for rollbacks and abolishing jobs, but it blames management for twice refusing to open its books so it could see for itself the state of the financial situation.
The CSN-affiliated union reports that on March 17, the employer eliminated 26 seasonal worker positions, nearly half of the workforce covered by the 31-week employment floor in the collective agreement.
Chartrand added that the 60 or so seasonal employees who were scheduled to return at the end of March 2020 were not recalled until just over three months later, even though their salaries were covered 50 per cent by government wage subsidies.
The vote to use strike days was held at a virtual general meeting Friday night.
- This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2021
