While awaiting a decision from the Administrative Labour Tribunal (TAT) on which essential services must be maintained, two strikes are set to begin overnight from Wednesday to Thursday at Hydro-Québec.
Together, these two local chapters of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ, represent nearly 9,000 employees.
In both cases, the action will involve a refusal to work overtime.
Related:
Hydro-Québec and the two unions—namely the skilled trades union and the technologists’ union—have already agreed on the essential services to be maintained during the strike.
However, the TAT has yet to determine, by that time, whether the proposed list of services is sufficient to avoid endangering public health or safety.
Even though this is a refusal to work overtime, rather than a traditional strike, the president of the skilled trades union, Frédéric Savard, says he is certain that this refusal will have repercussions for Hydro-Québec. “It will certainly have an impact on the company’s action plan,” he stated in an interview on Monday.
Hydro-Québec management has already indicated that “during outages or emergencies, employees will be required to maintain essential services by working overtime.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
