This city has a tendency to be one of those places where, so often, you will see something that just doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever. Montreal fire trucks speeding down the street emblazoned with “City of Toronto” insignia is just one of such examples.
Montreal’s fire fighters have been feeling slighted by the city recently; they have been without a contract for over a year and have received no pay increases unlike their counterparts in Toronto who are seeing increases of almost 10% and already receive larger paycheques than fire fighters in Montreal. Our fire fighters have taken notice and have launched a series of pressure tactics which they hope will embarrass the city into hearing their demands. They’ve used what the Toronto Star calls a “Fightin’ Word” as part of their pressure tactics. The word? The dreaded “Toronto”. Local fire fighters have set aside past tactics of punching holes in fire hoses, tampering with station doors, and locking managers in their offices. This time around, fire trucks have “City of Toronto” banners on the front bumpers and on the ladders, fire fighters are wearing shirts that say “Toronto FD”, and they have even created a new logo reminiscent of the Toronto logo with the Mountain and Olympic Stadium replacing the CN Tower and Toronto skyline (the Toronto crest is copywrited so could not have been used in its original form). The crest can be seen here in a video made about the fire trucks. Meanwhile, Fire Station #3 in Griffintown has written on their window; “Toronto 5%, Montréal 0%, C’est fou de nous”.
The city, of course, is less than pleased. They have issued bills to the union for the cleanup of the decals and repainting if necessary. The union and the city are still negotiating but little has come from the talks. The city is vowing to hold the line saying it doesn’t have the money to increase pay and that comparing salaries of fire fighters in Montreal to those in Toronto doesn’t make sense as the cost of living in Montreal is so much lower than in Toronto. Fire fighters have little at their disposal to try to force their demands as they are considered an essential service, and are therefore barred from striking.
2 comments
I have always been surprised to see signs, decals and other union propaganda afixed to Fire engines, Fire Stations and City Busses. This equipment is not the property of the union or it’s employees. It’s the property of the city of Montreal and defacing it should carry the same penalties as defacing City Hall.
During the whole Mega-City Merger brouhahah of a few years ago, I saw fire engines practically covered in hundreds of decals and signs.
What a bunch of typical union cry babies! “Wahhhh! Some people in another city are making more than us! whahhhh!”
I’m sorry, I know firefighters occasionaly save lives and that I may someday need one to save my life….but, between all the heroic deeds there seems to be an awful lot of sitting around the firehouse and driving around responding to false alarms.
im an architect in montreal. I make substantially less than i did in Toronto.
My girlfriend is a nurse in toronto. she refuses to work in quebec simply because they make substantially less.
im tired of unions.