It’s been one of the snowiest
winters on record in Montreal, and that’s been a joy for skiers, snowboarders and children who have enjoyed a couple of unexpected days off from school.

But it’s been a misery for car owners and pedestrians trying to navigate through snow-clogged streets. The leisurely pace of clearing snow after this year’s four heaviest snowfalls has been debated at length in newspapers, on radio shows and at city hall, where officials have been on the hot seat.

Without a doubt, it’s a big job. Montreal has 4,100 kilometres of streets to clear, many of them narrow and in densely populated neighbourhoods in which cars are allowed to park on both sides. To remove the snow, the city employs 1,000 snowplows and other pieces of equipment and as many workers; and it has quickly burned through its $172-million snow-clearing budget.

One key impediment to a faster job has been the large number of cars that the city has had to tow to allow the plows to do their job. With the number of tows hitting 5,000 after storms, the city decided to open 2,400 free parking spaces in 25 lots around the city to try to get more vehicles out of the way.

Another roadblock is a safety law introduced a few years back that prevents workers operating heavy machinery to work for more than 70 hours over a seven-day period.

The city also has tried other measures to improve snow-clearing times, including looking for snow dumps that require less travel time as well as dumping more snow into parks and other open spaces. The city typically requires 375,000 truck trips to snow dumps, which, incidentally, are mostly full this year.

But many Montrealers suspect there’s another more basic problem behind the city’s woes: the notorious city workers’ union.

Local 301 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees is known to one and all as the blue-collar workers’ union. The union has a history of militancy that has, on occasion, extended to violence, including one well-remembered incident in 1993, when blue-collar workers bashed the doors of city hall with a battering ram to protest a wage freeze.

There have been persistent reports over the years of widespread slacking off among city workers.

Investigations by the city and a prominent newspaper last year found that much of the working day for some crews consisted of driving aimlessly around town, taking extended meal breaks, running personal errands and puttering around the depot.

There have also been reports of strong-arm tactics against both supervisors and union members who either try to put a stop to time-wasting or refuse to go along with it.

In the latest of these reports, there are stories of blue-collar workers and city supervisors who live in fear of physical intimidation, having their tires slashed or their homes vandalized by union goons.

The union is also known for its uncompromising tactics in support of contract demands. This year, the threat of pressure tactics by blue-collar workers forced the cancellation of the Fête des neiges, the city’s popular family-oriented winter festival.

But there are signs that change might slowly be coming. In 2006, the city promised a uniform zero-tolerance policy for city employees who are caught slacking off. It calls for a minimum three-day suspension for a first offence and dismissal for a repeat offence. To date, four employees — two blue-collar workers, a white-collar worker and a manager — have been fired under the policy and 50 employees have received suspensions.

Meanwhile, the blue-collar union has suffered a series of legal reversals, including defeat in a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of 35,000 citizens inconvenienced by huge traffic jams provoked by workers in 2003. Between 300 and 400 workers used city trucks to block downtown traffic for three hours to protest a city contract offer. A judge ruled against the union, to the tune of $1.2 million.

The city appears to be doing its best to rein in its blue-collar workers and improve snow-clearing times. Now, if it could only figure out a way to make winter a little shorter. IE