Gatineau municipal workers join Quebec pension protests

Municipal workers in Gatineau are heading to Quebec City today to protest proposed changes to their pensions by the province.

Quebecs Liberal government said in June theyll be changing municipal pension plans to take on some of a $4 billion deficit in the provincial pension plan.

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Unions said Bill 3 would take away the rights of municipal workers to negotiate about their working conditions.

They said they want negotiations in each municipality that are specific to that local deficit, if there is one claiming there is no major pension deficit in some communities and its unfair to make workers there split the provincial deficit.

Shows of displeasure have includedmass sick days and wearing flashy casual clothes instead of uniforms.

On Monday, hundreds of city workers in Montreal crashed their city hall, scattering papers and throwing water on councillors in protest.

Gatineau police unionfears it can't compete for workers

Gatineaus police union said their pension plan has helped them compete with lower salaries compared to Ottawa police officers, meaning the proposed changes would make it harder to hire new officers.

Knowing that there was a law coming up like that, wed rather have taken our salary raises, wed compare and wed be very close to Ottawa, said Jean-Pierre Bussiere, head of la Fraternit des policiers de la Ville de Gatineau.

Seems like our government, the provincial government, hands out one solution that they do bring out and impose to everybody.

The provincial government said its open to negotiating with municipal workers over these pension changes, but doing so could take months.

Hearings on Bill 3 begin Thursday in Quebec City.

• On mobile?Click hereto see ChloeFedio'scoverage of Bill 3 protesters inGatineau.