On line casino de Montréal sellers unexpectedly dropped their decks and walked off the job over the weekend.
Strikers protesting outdoors the On line casino de Montréal on Saturday after staging a mass walkout. (Picture: The Globe and Mail)
The flash strike started on the stroke of 4 pm on Saturday and lasted for 4 hours. Employees headed out to the doorway of the on line casino to show in opposition to an deadlock in negotiations over their new collective settlement. The protest was repeated for 4 hours on Sunday.
At stake is the settlement that regulates the working situations of 521 sellers. Salaries and dealing schedules are the principle points. The sellers have been with out contracts since March 31, 2020.
Negotiations hit a impasse the earlier weekend, the Canadian Union of Public Workers (CUPE), informed The Globe and Mail.
The on line casino is owned by Loto-Quebec, the provincial authorities’s gaming operator-regulator. Located on Notre Dame Island, it’s the largest on line casino in Canada.
‘Extra Openness’
“We want extra openness from the employer in the course of the mediation periods, which can happen from subsequent Tuesday. With the actions of as we speak and yesterday, the sellers have demonstrated their readiness to mobilize and their dedication to achieve a passable settlement,” mentioned CUPE union consultant Jean-Pierre Proulx Sunday in a French-language press launch.
Loto-Quebec officers mentioned they might proceed to welcome clients to the on line casino within the occasion of future strikes, albeit with a barely restricted service.
Operations on the gaming tables will proceed. The preferred video games, reminiscent of blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, will likely be on supply, however the poker site will likely be closed. All different actions, reminiscent of eating places, exhibits, or slot machine video games will happen usually,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.
It added it might proceed negotiations with the union “inside parameters which can be much like what has been agreed to by the identical our bodies of staff in its different casinos.”
‘Hidden Layoffs’
In February, the union accused Loto-Québec of planning “lots of of hidden layoffs” after it did not recall all the sellers who had been laid off in the course of the pandemic. This was regardless of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions on the on line casino in February.
In keeping with the union, 97.4% voted in favor of using “strain techniques” to pressure the operator to reinstate the sellers and return gaming tables to full capability. This concerned sellers displaying as much as work carrying union T-shirts promoting their calls for.
Loto-Québec mentioned in a February 25 assertion it might “pursue its gradual reopening, recalling its workers primarily based on visitors and buyer expectations.”
