About 800 professionals at the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), who had been on an overtime strike, have recently approved a tentative agreement following more than a year of negotiations.
The agreement, reached on December 31, was welcomed by the professionals’ union, a local branch of the Syndicat des employé(e)s professionnel(le)s et de bureau (SEPB), affiliated with the FTQ. A resounding 91 per cent of union members voted in favor of the agreement, with an impressive 86 per cent participation rate.
The local union president, Marc Glogowski, emphasized that the agreement brings job security, regulates subcontracting, preserves current benefits, and introduces more flexibility in work hours. He highlighted a 16.5 per cent wage increase spread over 4.5 years, along with various financial and regulatory advantages.
Before this agreement, the professionals had been part of an overtime strike since December 17. This category includes engineers, architects, analysts, and consultants working in IT, planning, infrastructure, and finance departments.
While this agreement was achieved, a separate strike is ongoing at the STM, involving 2,400 maintenance workers represented by the CSN.
The STM has successfully reached agreements with three unions to date: the professionals’ union, the union representing 4,500 bus drivers and metro operators, and the union representing 1,300 administrative and technical employees. All these unions are under the FTQ umbrella, specifically the SEPB for professionals and the SCFP for bus drivers, metro operators, and administrative and technical staff.
