Legault agrees with the workers of Bombardier in La Pocatière

Photo Stephanie Gendron
If he becomes prime minister, François Legault, leader of the CAQ, says that he’ll do everything that the workers of the factory Bombardier Transport in La Pocatière get their share of the cake in the draft express Network metropolitan (REM), even if the contract has been given to the company Alstom.

Stephanie Gendron

Thursday, 22-feb-2018 13:43

UPDATE
Thursday, 22-feb-2018 16:08

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LA POCATIÈRE | If it takes power, the CAQ says it is ready to pay Alstom for the plant to Bombardier Transport in La Pocatière works on the construction of the cars of express Network metropolitan (REM).

The leader François Legault went to the meeting of the workers of Bombardier, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, a few days after the union and elected officials had stated that 300 jobs on 600 could be lost within a few months if the government did nothing.

It is Alstom and non-Bombardier has been awarded the contract for the rolling stock for the project of the REM, which required no local content. The leader of the CAQ request to the prime minister Philippe Couillard to “re-enter” and see what can be done with the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for a portion of the work is given to La Pocatière.

If he was elected in seven months, this is what he would do. “If it’s not too late […] there may be means of negotiating an agreement with Alstom in exchange, perhaps, a contribution from the government of Quebec for a part of the contract to be made in La Pocatière, instead it is done in India or in Poland,” said Legault.

It is also committed to a government of the CAQ, if he is elected in seven months, requires a local content of at least 25 % in the projects of the government.

In the immediate future

In the immediate future, for The Goal, he said that the contract renewal of the cars of the Montréal metro Société de transport de Montréal (STM) provides for other cars that 468 requested to Bombardier-Alstom. The last cars will be delivered by November 2018. “You need to see with the STM how we can accelerate and announce as soon as possible, before we lose jobs,” said François Legault.

Several employees have confided that they were looking for work elsewhere, but nobody has yet given in his resignation. “They need to be reassured. I spoke to a thirty of them and they are all worried,” he also said at the end of his tour of the plant Thursday morning.

Pressure

François Legault was presented at the Bombardier plant with three of his fellow members, the mayor and the prefect of the place, as well as the union representative. The mayor of La Pocatière, Sylvain Hudon, see a good eye that they are talking about on a daily basis of the future workers of Bombardier in the media. “It creates so much pressure that at any given time, there will be no other choice than to get out,” he said.