A Metroblogging Montreal reader left this comment on Laiya’s post about the looming STM strike, and I thought that it deserved a wider audience. If any other STM employees happen to be reading, I encourage you to share your thoughts with us here.

Just to let you guys know, that maintenance people at the STM are not ONLY the people who clean the stations and garages. I work as a maintenance employee at the STM and my job involves repairing electronic equipment, which, with the aging of our metro, fails more often. We are asked to patch equipment that is over 40 years old with parts that we do not have. Our job just keeps on getting harder and harder over the years. Meanwhile, the personnel that retires is not being replaced/re-hired, so we end up with more and more work for the same salary.

It’s unfortunate that the strike affects the public, and personally, I am against it, BUT it is the only way that our employer and the general population will listen to us. We have tried talking to our employer, and they have closed their ears, saying that they cannot negotiate with us, even though our collective agreement has been expired since January.

I know that the majority of people are not on our side, but understand that this strike is not illegal, it has been allowed by our government. Essential services will continue, and the maintenance employees, although on strike, will still be working at maintaining the Montreal metro and repairing all of the obsolete equipment, so that you can get to work/school/etc on time.

I am not asking for sympathies, just for a bit of understanding. We do not want to take the population hostage, and believe it or not, but we are also left to ourselves when it comes to transportation, since we (dept I work for) start and finish at a time that essential services are not operational. I will be biking to and from work for the duration of the strike.

Hope we don’t end up going on strike, and that the STM has the decency to at least start negotiating with its employees, but if we do go on strike, rest assured that it’s not a vacation for us, on the contrary it’s more of a hassle than anything else.

Posted by: STM Guy at May 10, 2007 09:49 PM

Everyone is talking about the 40th anniversary of the opening of Habitat 67, which is known around the world. Just behind it in the St-Lawrence river, there is something that I imagine has been there somewhat longer. That’s the Montreal Wave. It also seems to be attracting attention around the world since I heard an interview on CBC with someone who moved to Montreal just for the surfing.

tornwordo wrote about it last year on this blog. Corran Addison has just written to me on this and mentions that there is a very large and developing scene here in Montreal. If you’d like to see some of the surfing action, here’s the link Corran sent me.

I’ve noticed that my wife and I have been arguing a lot about the weather these past few days, now we know why. My weather widget is on the left, the one from her laptop is on the right.

At least Meteomedia says that I’m the one who’s right…for once.

I’m rather irritated. Three times each week, I travel out to Laval to give English courses. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed the pressure tactics being used by the employee’s union, and it’s quite offputting. First there were the bright orange stickers plastered all over every bus. (Who has to clean that off?) “No metro in Laval unless an agreement is reached”. Then after the announcement of the new metro stations opening April 28th in Laval, the stickers were changed, “It’s Urgent to have a contract in April”. (I know I should have taken pictures) Each time I travel out to Laval, I have to think about what I will do if a strike occurs. I will have no means of getting to work, and in my business, if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. And this is why I’m irritated. I have no control over the situation, and yet I stand to lose the most from a work stoppage. Thankfully I wasn’t teaching in Laval this week when they took a two hour break, um, safety check. Uh huh. I am not anti-union but I don’t believe that workers should be permitted to stop public transportation. It is essential in keeping the city running. The last time the STM went on strike for 5 days, I lost five hundred bucks. I was reimbursed $5 on my next metro pass purchase. The sad thing is, my final recourse will be to buy a car. And then I’ll join the millions of others clogging the roads of our fair city. Did I mention I’m irritated?

The Greater Montreal Community Development Initiative Public Forum gives English-speaking Quebecers a voice. It will be held tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 pm on April 11 at the Verdun Room of the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Montreal, located at 900 rue de la Gauchetière West. For more details, check out the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) website.

Related: Social Media Support Communities

So my passport expires soon. Having heard reports of long lineups and processing times of up to 10 weeks, I decided to use part of my vacation day today to get through the dreaded ordeal of getting a new passport. The passport office at Complexe Guy Favreau is open from 7:30 to 4:30. Part of me wanted to get there for 7:30 so that I’d be the first in line but who has the willpower to do that? Sleeping in on your day off is a duty anyway.

So I got to the CGF and entered the lineup for the elevators at 9:44 a.m. The lineup didn’t look too bad - 3 relatively short snakes around the ropes. At least I’d visited the ladies room before getting in line. Ipod fully charged, I settled in for the wait. The security guards let people through in groups to board the elevator up to the 8th floor passport office. I figured I would be part of the 4th group. When the guard stopped the line right when he got to me, I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me”. But thankfully, he was just spacing out the group so that the elevator wouldn’t get too crowded. I was allowed through less than a minute later and was handed a numbered ticket which was a really good idea since some people in the elevator were already jockeying for position to get off first. But once you exit the elevator, the guard stationed at the passport office calls you by number to get in line. So take that, pushy people. The guard takes your number and then you wait a bit more to have your documents checked. If all is in order, and pray that they are, you are given another number. The clerk then tells you “it will be a 2 hour wait”. You look around the packed waiting room and you think to yourself “WHAT?!”. Or in my case, I said it out loud (oops) and the clerk just smiled. I have to say, those clerks at the front are really cheerful. I don’t know how they do it.

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Students at Concordia University have just recently voted to pay 75 cents per course as a means to green their campus. For the math lovers out there, thats 42,000 students x 75 cents= $185,000 to be put towards the greenification.

Initiatives such as giving each student a reusable plastic mug to eliminate their reliance on one-use styrofoam, providing each with a reusable bag to break the dependance on plastic bags as well as investing in electric vehicles to be used to get students from campus to campus are part of the agenda.

The Sustainable Concordia Project can be credited for kicking this into high gear as their 2003 and 2006 assessments ‘paved’ the way for this program.
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We’re not talking Canadian Idol here: far from it. Mike Boone of the Montreal Gazette has a great piece this morning on one of those quiet people who gets things done. This is Dean Whalen who last year instituted the Annual Mont-Royal Stair Climb for Children. Last year he started this and the participants together climbed over 133,000 stairs, raising $20,000 for the Montreal Children’s Hospital. He himself climbed over 10,000 stairs, that’s 41 flights, contributing almost 10% of the cumulative total.

It’s taking place again this year on Saturday May 5th from 8 a.m. - 12 noon. It starts at the Mount-Royal Stairs, on Pine Avenue, just east of McGill’s McIntyre Medical Building. It’s a marathon on stairs up on the jewel of our city, with no end in sight: 256 steps in all. This year’s climbing target is a total of 150 thousand steps, which should raise a minimum of $30,000.

So why not do your bit. You’ll find more details about this event here. Why not participate, every step will help. If you own a company, then become a sponsor. .. or if you work for a company, then persuade your colleagues and your company to get involved. For more details, call 514-346-3048.

Howdy!

[Update: Apparently this election thing is important. Her interview has been bumped to Wednesday eve, everything else remains the same]

I don’t know how many folk still listen to As it Happens in the gazillion channel universe, especially since it is (gasp!) a radio program, on the CBC to boot. But I am immensely proud of my mother as she is going to be interviewed by Carol Off all about Gardasil, aka the HPV vaccination.

For those of you out of the loop (or too young to know) As it Happens is a 20+ year old radio program where they call out to newsmakers and informed folk (like my mom) on headline stuff. Back when I was a youngster one of the cooler ones was when they interviewed the best friend of a woman who had tried to assasinate president Ford - as you might guess it was quite incendiary. If I remember correctly it was listened to by as many as 1 million people, but I would guess many fewer these days.

If you care to hear my mom, the program starts at 6:30 pm, lasts an hour (although I do not know exactly what time my mom is going to be interviewed) and CBC radio One is 88.5 or 104.7 depending where on the island you live, or you can stream it from their website, or download their podcast after the fact.