Montreal blue collar workers ordered to show up to work Tuesday

Montreal's blue collar workers have been ordered to show up to work tomorrow by the Quebec government's essential services council.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees had summoned its members to a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss upcoming negotiations with the City of Montreal.

The City of Montreal called the movean illegal work stoppage, since it was scheduled to takeplace during normal work hours. It asked theQuebec Labour RelationsBoard toenforce the labour code and penalize workers who don't clock in.

Their current contract expires on December 2017.

Workersstaged a noontime protest on Monday before the offices of the Union of Quebec Municipalities, calling attention to what they claim is an attack on their right to negotiate work conditions.

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Theworkers symbolically laid down their contracts in front of the offices on Sherbrooke Street West, saying they're worthless if mayors are given the power to set working conditions.

"Instead of addressing the collusion and corruption that continues in activities such as snow removal, they're attacking the men and women who deliver public services," the Canadian Union of Public Employees said in a statement.

The union recently posted a videopromising plenty of resistance in upcoming contract negotiations.

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The union, part of the Quebec Labour Federation, represents 110,000 members in Quebec.

"We are always willing to discuss common issues with the union in the context of the collective agreement signed in 2012," Pierre Desrochers, president of the City's executive committee, said in a statement Monday.

"However, we will continue to set the working conditions of the collective agreement for blue-collar workers until it expires in 2017."