Hundreds of young police officers staged a loud demonstration in front of police headquarters Wednesday morning.
Most of them are temporary employees who face little chance of becoming full-time members of the Montreal police department.
The Montreal Police Brotherhood says budget cutbacks will eliminate more than 140 positions in September.
The issue is the result of hiring practices by the police department. Every spring dozens of recruits are hired, most of them fresh from Nicolet Academy, and by the end of the calendar year many stay on to become full-time employees after existing staff retire.
However in 2010, only 80 officers are leaving the force, and of those who leave, only 40 will be replaced.
Union head Yves Francoeur says it's a problem the new chief of police will have to handle.
"We want to send a clear message to the new director," said Francoeur. "We want him, we ask him to tell the real situation to Mayor Tremblay."
Francoeur says the staff reduction will be noticeable by the public at large.
But managers within the department say blame lands squarely on the City of Montreal, which ordered many city departments and boroughs to cut costs this year.
The police department had its budget slashed by $35 million.
Francois Landry, a human resources manager with police, says if the union wants to save jobs, it will have to make some accommodations.
"We're interested in having these people stay with us but in doing so, dealing with the problems we have now with the budget problem, the number of posts available to hire them, we have to look at new solutions," Landry said.
The new chief will also face another issue soon after their appointment; the union's collective agreement expires in December.
