An Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) mechanic protests outside their facility in Montreal on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. A transit strike by the maintenance workers is expected to limit service to morning and evening rush hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
An Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) mechanic protests outside their facility in Montreal on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. A transit strike by the maintenance workers is expected to limit service to morning and evening rush hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
MONTREAL - Montreal’s public transit agency has asked the provincial government to appoint a mediator to help settle a labour dispute with bus and metro drivers, who are set to join maintenance workers with a series of strikes next month.
Roughly 4,500 transit workers announced they intend to strike on Nov. 1, 15 and 16. If a deal can't be reached in time, they will walk out with about 2,400 maintenance workers who have gone on strike twice since June and have announced labour action for most of November.
"We're convinced that the presence of a mediator will get us closer to reaching an agreement."
However, a mediator didn't help settle things with maintenance workers. The agency and its maintenance union have been in mediation since Oct. 7, but that didn't stop the union from announcing a third strike, this time from Halloween night until Nov. 28. The members say they will refuse to work overtime and limit bus and metro service outside rush hours, but the full details of the strike have yet to be announced.
Two earlier strikes by maintenance workers — over nine days in June and two weeks in late September and early October — disrupted travel across the network, which recorded about 1 million trips per day in 2024.
Katherine Roux-Groleau, a spokesperson for the transit agency, said they contacted Quebec's labour minister to ask for a mediator as soon as they got word the bus and metro drivers were going to walk off the job. Their collective agreement expired in January.
"We are still undergoing a negotiation blitz at the moment with the drivers," said Roux-Groleau. "Several meetings are currently booked, and as soon as the mediator is appointed, (they'll) be added to those meetings."
This report by ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥was first published Oct. 23, 2025.
