Montreal professionals' union to strike evenings and weekends starting October 19

Montréal's professional municipal workers will strike evenings and weekends beginning October 19, the Syndicat des professionnelles et professionnels municipaux de Montréal (SPPMM) announced Friday.

The strike will run 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays and around the clock on weekends. The union represents 3,100 professionals working across the city's libraries, information technology, water management, culture, environment, and finance divisions. A strike mandate vote on September 23 passed with 90.6% approval.

Union president Anne Dorais told reporters the action targets municipal services that operate beyond standard hours. "We don't want to jeopardize essential services; we're not there at all. But we want to demonstrate to the City that when people are no longer present at those times, there will be, therefore… I called it the strike of great disruption," Dorais said. She noted that fall's budget process often requires work into evening hours—a demand she framed as the core dispute.

The city has maintained that essential services will be sustained. The strike follows a one-day walkout by the same union on March 30, 2026. The SPPMM's collective agreement expired December 31, 2023. Main grievances center on wages and teleworking terms.

Meanwhile, the City of Montreal reached an agreement in principle with blue-collar workers this week—the local branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 6,000 workers. Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada has stated she has limited room to maneuver given the city's financial constraints and her desire to respect citizens' ability to pay. No update on ongoing talks with the SPPMM was available as of Friday.