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The transit strike which would have shut down bus and Metro service in Montreal for the weekend has been cancelled after a last-minute tentative deal was reached Friday night between the city's public transit agency and the union representing bus drivers and Metro operators.
Service will therefore be running normally Saturday and Sunday.
SCFP 1983, the union representing bus drivers, Metro operators and station agents, said in a news release that an agreement in principle was reached with the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) around 7 p.m. after seven days of intense negotiations.
"Our goal was to reach a negotiated agreement, and we have achieved that. Now it will be up to the members to vote through the democratic structures provided for in our bylaws and regulations," said union president Frédéric Therrien.
The STM's board of directors and the union's members will have to ratify the agreement.
No information on the provisions of this tentative deal will be disclosed until it has been adopted, an STM news release reads.
“We have reached an agreement in principle that includes compromises from all sides and, above all, respects the established financial framework,” said Marie-Claude Léonard, the STM’s CEO, in the release.
She thanked all the teams involved and says it avoids another strike that significantly impacts the public, as requested by Montreal’s new mayor, Soraya Martinez Ferrada.
In a publication on X, the mayor highlighted the "intensive work" done by the union and the STM to reach a deal." As I've always said, the best agreements are those negotiated at the table," wrote Martinez Ferrada.
On Saturday morning, when asked about her contribution to the outcome, she told Radio-Canada she helped "rebuild the bridge of negotiation" between the parties involved and set a deadline of Nov. 15.
"I wasn't the one at the negotiating table. It's to their credit that they reached an agreement, but I think they must have felt supported by a new administration in those talks," stated Martinez Ferrada.
Soraya Martinez Ferrada, mayor of Montreal. (Ivanoh Demers/Radio-Canada)Evoking her father, who was a bus driver in Montreal for many years, she said she believed it was important for unions to be able to negotiate working conditions for employees and having done so "intensely" within a time frame to avoid a strike was the "right thing to do."
Montreal’s Metro and bus network was expected to shut down this weekend for the second time after Quebec’s labour tribunal approved the two-day strike.
The ruling had come late Wednesday, only hours after maintenance workers suspended their month-long strike and regular service resumed.
The strike was set to proceed despite intense negotiations and a failed attempt by Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet to fast-track back-to-work legislation.
The government couldn't secure support from all opposition parties to pass the bill, with Québec Solidaire voicing its opposition.
On social media Friday evening, Boulet congratulated the STM and the union for reaching an agreement and cancelling the planned strike.
Before Friday's tentative deal, the drivers' union, which represents about 4,500 STM employees, had said talks were ongoing and that an agreement was still possible before Saturday.
The union has blamed chronic underfunding by the Legault government for the conflict, noting these negotiations are usually settled without disruption.