Montreal West reaches agreement with white collar employees

As council members voted last Tuesday at town hall to approve Montreal West's first white collar contract since demerger in 2006, a dozen or so blue collars sat ominously at the rear of the room, although they maintained their silence throughout the meeting.

When Montreal West was reconstituted following four years of forced merger with the City of Montreal, it inherited a collective agreement the centre city had signed, which expired in July 2006. A vote on changes to the agreement proposed by town council was held by the white collars on March 19 and was accepted unanimously.

The contract obtained by the town is just over eight years in length and is effective from July 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2014. According to the town officials, it is one of the longest collective agreements on the island of Montreal. Montreal West has 10 white collar employees.

"The employees were very open to our ideas," Mayor Campbell Stuart said in a statement. "They really are a great team and want to work with the community. Historically, the Town of Montreal West had three-year contracts. There were significant costs associated with each negotiation. Therefore we preferred a longer eight-year contract, which provides the additional benefit of long-lasting peace within our labour force."

One improvement the town says it obtained in the new agreement is a new schedule for public security officers, which will allow them to provide better service to residents. A salary increase of two per cent per year and minor modifications to benefit packages were also granted, although there are no specific provisions for the hiring of students.

"While their wages and advantages will not be as great as that of a permanent employee, we are offering students invaluable work experience," said Stuart. Regarding negotiations for the blue collar agreement, Montreal West's town manager Stéphane Dulude told The Monitor, "We are going into conciliation all through May. So we will have six meetings in May with a conciliator."