SALABERRY-DE-VALLEYFIELD, Quebec — “We’ve been in a fight for better wages and conditions since Oct. 22,” Serge Grenier told this Militant worker-correspondent here Oct. 27. He’s the vice president of the bargaining unit of Unifor Local 700 at Autobus Venise, which runs the school buses. The 41 drivers had voted unanimously to strike a month earlier.
After a two-week strike, the bus drivers won an agreement Nov. 5 that includes a 3% wage increase each year for the next three years and other gains.
Autobus Venise is owned by Transport Scolaire Sogesco, which has some 30 subsidiaries and more than 1,000 employees across Quebec.
Strikers had set up a couple lively picket lines outside the bus depot in this industrial town one hour southwest of Montreal. Many passing truck and car drivers honked in support.
Grenier said the company had offered a meager 1.5% wage increase for the first year of the contract and wanted to cut the number of working days and hours guaranteed to the workers, resulting in a significant wage reduction. “We are fighting both to win wages that keep up with inflation and to defend hard-won gains,” he said during the strike.
Striker Martine Lavallee said they had learned an important lesson from the four-month-long strike they carried out during the schools’ summer vacation in 2023. It’s much better with the strike being waged during the school year.
Grenier added that they also support the fight being waged by unions across Canada to defend the right to strike from moves in Parliament to allow the federal government in Ottawa to ban them.