{"id":173951,"date":"2023-07-21T11:58:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T15:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=173951"},"modified":"2023-08-28T15:51:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T19:51:24","slug":"quebec-casino-workers-strike-reaches-one-month-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/quebec-casino-workers-strike-reaches-one-month-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec casino workers\u2019 strike reaches one-month mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A strike by roughly 1,700 workers from four Quebec casinos, as well as workers for the province\u2019s online gaming platform, reaches the one-month mark tomorrow. Negotiations between the CSN and Loto-Qu\u00e9bec stalled in May over the subject of compensation, and workers have been on the picket lines since late June.<\/p>\n<p>The workers \u2013 mostly in security, custodial, and customer services \u2013 are seeking higher wages and shift premiums. Loto-Qu\u00e9bec has proposed a 12.5 per cent salary increase over five years. The union has countered with a three-year contract, with salary raises of inflation plus one dollar each year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/societe.lotoquebec.com\/en\/media-and-partners\/press-releases\/2023\/juillet\/societe-greve-casinos-2023-07-05\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Loto-Qu\u00e9bec maintains<\/a> that salaries are competitive, averaging 20 per cent above market rate. Union representative Riccardo Scopelleti says those figures are out of date in today\u2019s competitive labour market.<\/p>\n<p>Loto-Qu\u00e9bec also cites 300 new workers since April 1. According to Scopelleti, the casinos have lost more than 1,400 workers since the start of the pandemic. As a result, some services that closed during COVID-19 remain so to this day.<\/p>\n<p>To him, the offer tabled by Loto-Qu\u00e9bec doesn\u2019t provide incentives to attract and retain replacements \u2013 especially the proposal of a 10 per cent salary reduction for new employees.<\/p>\n<p>Constantinos Alexiou agrees. He\u2019s a former cook in the Montreal casino who now works in online gaming. He says that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journaldemontreal.com\/2023\/06\/07\/grand-retour-des-remunerations-incitatives-a-la-direction-de-loto-quebec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the casinos posting over a billion dollars in profits, and top executives getting six-figure bonuses<\/a>, doesn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of insulting to be told \u2026 \u2018we\u2019ll take this much bonus but there\u2019s no money to give you guys,\u2019 especially when they\u2019re asking newcomers to take a 10 per cent hit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just newcomers feeling the pinch. Ricardo Nucci is a thirty-year veteran of the security department. He says the union\u2019s asks would help workers keep their heads above water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis strike hurts me more than other strikes and lockouts have over the years. I feel I\u2019ve given more than half of my life to the casino, and there\u2019s a lack of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to the story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A strike by roughly 1,700 workers from four Quebec casinos, as well as workers for the province\u2019s online gaming platform, reaches the one-month mark tomorrow. Negotiations between the CSN and Loto-Qu\u00e9bec stalled in May over the subject of compensation, and workers have been on the picket lines since late June. The workers \u2013 mostly in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":173953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57],"tags":[29426,29428,29425,29427,8453],"radio":[28325],"origine":[274,1145,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175677,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173951\/revisions\/175677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173951"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=173951"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=173951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}