Members of the Union of Lawyers of Montreal and Laval decided on Wednesday to renew their strike mandate.

• Read also: Legal aid lawyers on strike during the holidays

"Two days before Christmas, several lawyers were threatened by the Community Legal Center of Montreal and Laval (CCJM) with disciplinary sanctions if they did not show themselves available according to the holiday schedules imposed by the employer", can we read in a press release written by the Syndicate of lawyers of Montreal and Laval-CSN.

Lawyers in Montreal and Laval thus have ten additional strike days that could be used at any time. The lawyers were put to a vote as they returned to work after walking off the job for the past five days.

Negotiations with lawyers in the Montreal region, who have been without a collective agreement since December 31, 2019, have not yielded the expected results.

Working conditions have also deteriorated in recent days, according to the union.

The union training also denounces service disruptions that occurred during the holiday break. She claims that no member of the management of the CCJM volunteered to respond to the telephone on-call and video appearance services during the strike.

Quebec's refusal to ensure pay parity between legal aid lawyers and their Crown colleagues is pointed out by the union training.

The CSN unions of lawyers from the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine are also parties to this dispute.