Superior Court refuses Sherbrooke’s claim that blue collar strike is illegal

August 3, 2011

On Tuesday morning, Quebec Superior Court judge François Thôt rejected the injunction application filed by the City of Sherbrooke, which was hoping to have the blue collars strike suspended.
The City of Sherbrooke failed to convince the Court of the merits of the request, with the judge announcing that the city has not met the criteria for ordering a return to work.
The city’s plead was that the strike should be considered a partial one seeing how almost 80 per cent will still be working during the strike, providing essential services to the public.
A partial strike is deemed illegal under the Labour Code, which would have meant that the blue collars are actually currently on an illegal strike.
The city representatives were obviously upset and left the courthouse without commenting to the press.
The blue collar workers, on their end, are delighted with the strike “we are very pleased with today’s decision, we can now continue to go on strike in a pattern that will interfere as little as possible with citizens’ needs” said Mario Fontaine, Vice President of the Union of Blue Collar Workers of Sherbrooke.
“The strategy of the municipal leaders is downright shameful (…) instead of throwing fuel on the fire and spending as much money as they are on security guards and legal remedies, the city should just agree with us on the small part of the negotiations that are left so we can get along” he said.
The two sides will meet once again on August 15 to set a date for yet another court hearing.