Hundreds of layoffs on the verge of being made in the road maintenance industry in a state of crisis, on the sidelines of the strike by Quebec's 1,800 government engineers

MONTREAL, June 21, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - On the verge of reaching a point of no return since the botched launch of the active season, dozens of Bitume Québec member companies have concluded that an unprecedented wave of mass layoffs will be necessary if the dispute between Quebec's 1,800 government engineers and the Quebec government does not reach a favourable outcome in the coming days.

Hundreds of workers are at risk of being laid off unless a quick agreement is reached between the 1800 state engineers and the Treasury Board of Quebec Government. (CNW Group/Bitume Québec)

This was made known today by the president, Tytus Zurawski, in light of the failure of recent negotiations which, according to the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia Lebel, greatly jeopardizes the schedule of planned and authorized work; "there are already delays that cannot be made up", said the Minister. "The tragedy is that the start of work on the 2022-2023 program is also completely paralyzed, despite the recent suspension of the second engineers strike" said Zurawski. The third period of return to strike on Monday, June 21 will be a fatal blow to companies specializing in the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. According to the latter, the road maintenance industry is in a state of unprecedented crisis.

"Faced with this prospect, which poses a direct threat to the financial health and sustainability of many of these companies, it is with a heavy heart that many of these companies are about to unleash an unprecedented wave of layoffs," added the president of Bitume Québec, aware that these losses of jobs and expertise will further deepen a bottomless hole in the pool of skilled labor, which is currently the subject of a phenomenon of historic scarcity. "The industry is not willing to consider this alternative in the absence of work that can be done this season, and especially in the absence of legitimate revenues," continued Mr. Zurawski. He also said that the companies' finances are stretched beyond breaking point and they can no longer tolerate keeping paid staff idle. "This wave of layoffs would make it impossible to return to normalcy quickly, even after this dispute is resolved," said Bitume Québec's president, pointing out that the road industry's network includes approximately 61,468 km of roads, including the 31,091 km of highways, national roads, regional roads and collector roads that are maintained by the MTQ.

This does not include local streets, roads and highways managed by municipalities, other ministries and Hydro-Quebec, on which Bitume Québec members may also be involved.

The president of Bitume Québec concluded by stating that socially and economically, Quebec could not afford to risk the health of its road network, which has been improving in recent years with, according to 2020 statistics, 76.9% of the Quebec road network having a pavement considered to be in good condition according to the international standard IRI (International Roughness Index), which is a reliable indicator used by many road administrations around the world.

Source: Tytus Zurawski
President, Bitume Québec

SOURCE Bitume Québec

Alexandre Dumas, Vice President - Corporate Communications, NATIONAL Public Relations, 514-898-4636 (cell), [email protected]