Montreal blue collars sign new contract

Montreal and its municipal workers havesigned a five-year deal, bringing an end to three years of bitter negotiations.

The new contract covers 2007 to 2012 and includes a two per cent salary increase per year, except in 2012, when the wage raise will equal inflation.

"We have a win-win deal," Mayor Grald Tremblay said after signing the agreement at City Hall on Wednesday. "This is an occasion to renew our relations."

The deal also includes provisions to permanently hire 446 temporary employees who have been working full time for as long as seven years.

"For us, the main concern for this round of bargaining was jobs, jobs, jobs," said Marc Ranger, a negotiator for CUPE Local 301, which represents the employees.

The promised raises will be financed by savings generated through an upcoming internal "reorganization" by the city, which includes an increase in the number of employees assigned to managers.

Other savings are expected to flow from new rules for outsourced snow-removal contracts. Snow-removal companies no longer have to pay their employees the equivalent of the unionized blue collar hourly wage, an incentive to increase efficiency.

Municipal workers are ready to deliver, said union president Michel Parent.

"It's up to us to meet this challenge," Parent said at a news conference at City Hall following the signing. "It's time to roll up our sleeves and offer the best public services to Montrealers."

Labour relations between the blue-collar union and city have been strained at best, antagonistic at worst, with rotating strikes and pressure tactics punctuating years of fruitless negotiations since the last collective agreement expired in early 2007.

Labour Minister Lise Thriault intervened earlier this year, naming a conciliator who issued the current contract. Unionized blue-collar workers ratified the contract with a 96.8 per cent vote in September.

The new contract means an end to pressure tactics that forced the closure of the Insectarium and Biodme earlier this year because of a lack of staffing. The Insectarium will reopen shortly, but the Biodme will stay closed until December to allow renovation work to be completed.

Montreal employs about 5,000 blue-collar workers.