The croupiers from Casino de Montreal strike for 3 months for the labour agreement between CUPE and Loto-Quebec.
The reason for the strikes was, of course, the salaries and the pay cut that Loto-Quebec invented. According to their payment policy, the hourly rates should be changed from $18.40 to $17.93 per hour as it is now. There has been no official labour agreement since April 2020, and the Covid situation additionally has slowed down the negotiation process.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing the casino dealers from Casino de Montreal, criticized Loto-Quebec for the payment policy. One of the reasons is that the living standards are higher than before, and any salary decrease will harm the workers.
Also, CUPE suggested a 30 minutes break after every working hour, which the Loto-Quebec instantly denied with the justification that the workers would spend 30% of their working time on breaks which is not common in the casino industry. The dealers from Casino de Montreal asked for more breaks because they handle over 10,000 cards during working hours which caused many hand injuries, skeletal and muscular disorders, etc.
There was no favourable agreement from Loto-Quebec on any demand, so the strikes from the croupiers expanded in Montreal.
Striking since May this year, Jean-Pierre Proulx, a union adviser in CUPE, announced that CUPE and Loto-Quebec have recently reached a labour agreement. Both sides are satisfied with the new labour contract, but none of them has shared the details of the agreement. The finalization of the contract will proceed in the following period during the general meeting of the unions, where all the details will take their place publicly.
