The Quebec tramway contract comes at the right time: satisfaction and pride in La Pocatière

Assembly of Quebec tramway trains, which will begin in 2025, comes at the perfect time to “consolidate” and create jobs at the Alstom plant in La Pocatière, CSN predicts.

“It’s not surprising, but it’s still good news,” Marco Levesque, president of the union of 230 workers, said on Friday.

The latter commented on the fact that Alstom was on track to secure a contract to build tramway trains in Quebec.

“It actually consolidates the jobs we currently have. It is important to keep the expertise of our world. It brings in more employees. how much Hard to say. But when you have a more stable plant like that, it becomes easier to hire quality staff,” added Mr Levesque.

“good story”

According to him, there is a certain logic in building a Quebec tramway in a factory less than 1h30 from the Capitale-Nationale. “Our money is rolling. It will be good for the city, it will be good for the region as a whole,” he insisted.

The same argument was made by the mayor of La Pocatière, Vincent Bérubé. In addition to the important financial benefits of a future contract, the latter emphasized the “sense of pride” that drives the Pocatois.

“Even today, when people from La Pocatière go to Montreal, they say they worked on the metro with Bombardier. It will be the same work for the Quebec tramway in 40 or 50 years. It has a great story and it brings some durability,” he rejoiced.

From 2025 onwards

Currently, workers at La Pocatière are working on three separate contracts to produce “sub-assemblies” for the New Jersey Metro, the Toronto Tramway and the Vancouver Skytrain.

“We expect the assembly of the Quebec tramway trains to begin in two years. It will replace another contract that will expire by then,” said trade unionist Marco Levesque.

In addition to the 230 unionized workers whose collective agreement runs through October 2026, the La Pocatière plant has 207 white-collar workers. Design and engineering of the Quebec tramway must be carried out in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Monterrey. The assembly takes place in La Pocatière.