- has learned that nearly $200,000 was spent in legal fees by the employer in the labor dispute which continues in Mont-Bélu.
Three months after the employees launched a strike, there is still no agreement between the Mont-Bélu Ski Center Employees’ Union and the management party, the Bélu Company. This manages the La Baie station which belongs to the City of Saguenay.
However, the general director of the station, Frédéric Perron, confirms that hundreds of thousands of dollars which had been collected for the lighting of the Lévesque track and the installation of an audio system were instead paid out in legal fees. .
In December, the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) notably ordered the Bélu Company to negotiate in good faith with the union. The organization then made an offer to employees that the union reviewed over the holiday season.
The employer was also legally involved in the request for decertification of the union which had been filed by an employee, then rejected by the TAT. A request for review was requested, but the judgment of the TAT of December established his chances of success as being extremely low.
Another request for suspension
A meeting between representatives of the Mont-Bélu Ski Center Employees Union took place Thursday evening at the office of the CSN in order to prepare the response to the employer’s latest offer submitted in mid-December.
Contacted by - in the evening, the vice-president of the union, Frédéric Gagnon, did not want to come forward with a date for submitting the counter-offer.
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Frédéric Gagnon is the vice-president of the Mont-Bélu-CSN Ski Center Employees Union.
Photo: - / Lauriane Boudreau
Furthermore, according to the union, the employer filed a new request to suspend negotiations and the employees’ right to strike. The Bélu Company has already seen this request refused twice by the TAT.
We consider it sad that this deprives citizens of their ski center and even to the detriment of the quality of service that will be offered to them at the resort level. [L’employeur] talks about infrastructure being held back by this. We do not understand the justification that a non-profit organization can attack its union to such an extent that it generates hundreds of thousands of dollars. [en frais]
denounced Frédéric Gagnon.
With information from Mélyssa Gagnon
