Québec City, January 27, 2016 — Bad news greeted the roughly 100 workers at Transcontinental of Québec City today when management announced it was closing the plant and transferring the contracts to its Beauce and Montreal plants.
“Most of our members aren’t just losing their jobs, they’re losing their trade,” said Teamsters Canada Public Relations Director Stéphane Lacroix. “It’s hard to find jobs in the printing industry today, which makes the news all the more troubling.”
The average age of the workers at this plant, who are represented by Teamsters Canada Local Union 555M, is 45.
The workers are upset because they made concessions during the last round of bargaining two years ago. Knowing that the survival of the plant was at stake, they hoped that the employer would make the necessary investments to upgrade the plant’s equipment. Unfortunately, these investments were never made.
The Québec City plant closure will not affect the Le Soleil newspaper, which is printed at another Transcontinental plant.
A reclassification committee has been set up and the last workers will leave the plant on April 30, 2016.
The Teamsters represent 120,000 members in Canada in all trades. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.
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Information:
Stéphane Lacroix, Director of Public Relations
Cell: 514 609-5101
E-mail: [email protected]
