Quebec public engineers strike paralyzes 250 worksites across province

An ongoing strike by Quebec government engineers has paralyzed 250 worksites across the province, according to numbers obtained by Radio-Canada.

"These sites require the presence of engineers for diverse reasons, like supervision or inspection," said ministry spokesperson Martin Girard.

Among the projects affected around Quebec City are repair work to the Pierre Laporte Bridge structure and the Duplessis highway.

The engineers union has been on strike since May 24, and unlike the province's construction workers, were not subject to back-to-work legislation passed earlier this week. The union representing 1,400 Quebec government engineers had a strike mandate for nearly a year.

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Striking engineers also took to protesting outside a meeting of the Quebec Liberal Party in Trois-Rivières.

"People took their Saturday morning to come protest and ask how it is possible that engineers are the least paid out of all of Quebec's public sector," union president Marc-André Martin said.

The issues

The union lists, among other concerns, the government's inability to attract and keep experienced engineers, in spite of the Charbonneau commission's recommendation that it must re-establish internal engineering expertise in order to fight collusion and corruption.

The group is asking for a 20 per cent salary increase, something Martin says is comparable to wages in similar sectors.

"The minimum salary for government engineers is $74,000. A Hydro-Québec technician makes $82,000," he said.

The government met Wednesday with union leaders for continued negotiations. Treasury Board President Pierre Moreau said then that he wasn't ruling out the possibility of back-to-work legislation.