Last week, the Syndicat des pompiers d’Aéroports de Montréal (SPADM-PSAC) and the employer agreed to present their conciliator’s recommendations to members. The parties sought the help of a conciliator to break a months-long deadlock that had yielded many disappointing employer offers.
“We warmly welcome the conciliator’s recommendations,” said PSAC-Quebec Executive Vice-President Yvon Barrière. “These important gains will lighten the financial burden on members at a time when inflation and high interest rates are putting significant pressure on workers. We hope that these major advances will ripple to our other firefighter unions.”
The SPADM-PSAC bargaining team therefore recommends that members adopt the recommendations. They will be called to vote on them on August 31. Details will be available shortly.
In the meantime, here are some highlights:
Normative issues
- Set probation for new firefighters at 1,000 hours instead of one year under the Canada Labour Code
- Hire a maximum of eight part-time, temporary firefighters for a minimum of 24 hours per week
- Provide leave for officer training
- Increase parental leave to match the Canada Labour Code
- Rehire Brother Jean-Luc Martin
- Guarantee 36 permanent firefighters at the Montréal-Trudeau and Mirabel fire stations to accommodate part-time, temporary firefighters
- Add Nathalie Faucher to the list of grievance arbitrators
- Provide uniform training to the firefighters of the two fire stations, with upgraded training within 180 days of signing
- End use of replacement firefighters (the last five to become regular firefighters)
- Implement agreement on working conditions of part-time, temporary firefighters
- Run a 24-hour schedule pilot project (January 1, 2024 to December 1, 2026).
Wages
- Increase number of annual leave days (more leave after fewer years of service)
- Allow leave requests with as little as 24 hours’ notice
- Add the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a 14th designated paid holiday
- Increase overtime meal allowance from $11 to $14.75
- Protect jobs over the life of the collective agreement based on the nominal roll
- Enter into a five-year collective agreement expiring on December 31, 2026
- Increase salary by 4.8% in 2022, 5.0% in 2023, CPI+0.5% (min. 2% to max. 4.5%) in 2024-2026
- Resolve over 800 overtime grievances: ADM will pay 32 firefighters $8,000 each
- Replace double time with time and a half overtime.