As of November 1, STM (Société de transport de Montréal) workers have gone on strike, as negotiations between the STM and unionized workers continue. Two separate unions are striking this month. The
Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN, which represents STM maintenance workers, has announced their third strike of the year from November 1 to November 28, and the Syndicat des chauffeurs, opérateurs et employés des services connexes- 1983 (SCFP 1983) went on strike on November 1.
The strikes have resulted in reduced metro and bus service: the metro is currently running between 6:30a.m. and 9:30a.m., between 2:45p.m. and 5:45p.m, and from 11p.m. to closing time; buses are running between 6:15 a.m. and 9:15a.m., from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and between 11:15 p.m. and 1:15 a.m. Most buses will complete the routes they have started. Paratransit services will continue as normal.
The Syndicat des chauffeurs, opérateurs et employés des services connexes-1989 has also expressed intent to strike on November 15 and 16, but the STM stated on Thursday, October 30 that they had not yet received official notice of these strikes.
Since public transit is an essential service, the striking union and the STM must discuss what threshold of services to maintain after a strike is announced. The STM claims that they have been attempting to negotiate an increased level of metro service during the strike through discussions over the past week. The final decision is then made by the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), who rule on the adequacy of the level of essential service provided.
The month-long Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN maintenance workers’ strike is the third instalment in a year-long struggle with the STM, while the SCFP-1983 strike will be the union’s first in 38 years. The maintenance workers’ union stated in April that they are striking against the creation of atypical work schedules, staff relocations, reduced job protections against subcontracting, job insecurity through the creation of part-time positions and additional shift workers, the rejection of vacation quotas, and the removal of clauses protecting weekday work schedules. The SCFP-1983 said in an October 14 statement that it is asking the STM for more humane working hours, fair wage increases that reflect the current economic climate, a better work- life balance, and no rollbacks in job security.
The STM strike comes at a crucial moment for workers’ rights and union power. Bruno Jeanotte, president of the Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN, told the Montreal Gazette that “we wouldn’t be in a strike of this magnitude” without the looming Bill 89, as the bill “forces [the union] to apply much more aggressive pressure tactics.” As of November 30, Bill 89 will come into effect in Quebec, which will give the Minister of Labour the power to unilaterally end strikes if they are deemed detrimental to the public, and expands the amount of essential services which must be maintained while workers are striking. The bill, which was sponsored by Quebec’s current Minister of Labour Jean Boulet, purports to “give greater consideration to the needs of the population in the event of a strike or a lock-out,” but has been criticized as a “major retreat in workers’ rights” by three labour law professors at the Université de Montréal and members of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT).
McGill students who rely on public transit to go to and from campus are struggling to work around the strike. Lindsy Yang is a fourth-year neuroscience student who commutes to school every day via metro. When metro service is regular, Lindsy’s commute usually takes 30 minutes. On days when she has an 8:30 a.m. class then choir in the evening, she would normally go home in the interim. But due to the strikes, stranded by the gaps in service, she is spending up to 14.5 hours on campus. “[The strike] very much fragments my time,” Lindsy told the Daily.
Eva Leblanc is a U4 history student who has also been impacted by the STM strike. She sees the strike as a differentiating force which acts disproportionately on some students. “Students who have to commute are put at a disadvantage academically, and are at the whims of the metro,” she says. Mariana Monsalve, a U1 political science student minoring in sociology, identifies this disparity as based in social class: “[The strike] will disproportionately affect… poorer students that don’t have the means to pay for an Uber or a car, or students that aren’t able to bike or use alternative modes of transportation.”
There have been attempts to close this gap between students who can easily get to campus during the strike period and those who cannot. The Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) posted on Instagram last Wednesday that they will be reimbursing students for transport-related expenses incurred as a result of the altered transit schedule. Organized by the SSMU Equity Commissioners and Vice President University Affairs Susan Aloudat, the Emergency Transportation Subsidy Project evaluates submissions based on the information submitted alongside the application and uses equity programming funds to reimburse SSMU members for transportation costs throughout the duration of the strike. Acceptable submissions include Bixi fees, fees for rides between campus and the home address listed on a student’s enrollment letter, parking passes, and other transportation passes.
During the November 6 SSMU Legislative Council meeting, as of the third day of the support project, Aldoudat expressed to the Daily that while she hopes students can recognize that this is an unprecedented pilot project, “the intention is to subsidize and support as many students as we can.” Requests will be evaluated based on which submissions yield the greatest “return on investment,” but SSMU is focused on accessibility and will thoughtfully consider the explanations students provide in their submissions. “I really hope that students will feel that this is one way that [they] can get support from SSMU and that they can benefit from [it] more than anything,” Aloudat shared. SSMU is open to hearing commuter experiences as feedback on this program to ensure that members are being adequately supported throughout the strike.
Subsidiary requests can be submitted throughout the duration of the strike through a webform on the Resources page of SSMU’s website, under Funding Opportunities.
Some McGill professors are accommodating students’ inability to attend classes, and McGill has posted a statement encouraging employers and instructors to “show flexibility.” However, there is currently no blanket mandate for McGill faculty to accommodate students’ transport needs. Monsalve said we sees this as a failure on the part of the university: “The university is capable of accommodating,” she says. “It’s that they don’t want to.”
Editor’s Note: In the print version of this article, it was written that the Emergency Transportation Subsidy Project was organized by the SSMU Equity Committee rather than the SSMU Equity Commissioners. This is the correct version.