Montreal’s blue

Montreal’s blue-collar workers intend to strike for seven days during this month’s UCI Road World Championships.

The union, CUPE Local 301, filed the strike notice on Wednesday.

“We have just wrapped up an intense round of negotiations, and management does not seem to have a clear mandate regarding wages,’’ union president Nicolas De Ciccio said in a statement.

The union representing about 6,200 municipal workers had threatened the strike action last month if negotiations didn’t move forward.

The Sept. 20–27 cycling championships are expected to bring more than 1,000 athletes from nearly 80 countries to Montreal, with organizers estimating around 500,000 spectators will line the race routes. The city has described it as the biggest sporting event it has hosted since the 1976 Olympics.

Wednesday’s strike notice is for Sept. 22 to 28.

The union has been without a collective agreement since the end of 2024 and has already staged two strikes this year. It has previously said the city’s offer of an 11-per-cent increase over five years is unacceptable.

“We’re not asking for the moon,” De Ciccio said Wednesday, adding the union remains open to negotiating.

The city has maintained that it is negotiating several collective bargaining agreements at once and needs to respect taxpayers’ capacity to pay.