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Firefighters paint fire trucks black in pension protest

The new law would take away automatic indexation of their pensions

CJAD.com

MONTREAL — Municipal workers across the province are staging a series of disruptive actions Wednesday as part of what they’re calling ‘Le Grand Dérangement’ (‘The Big Disruption’).

It’s their latest salvo against Bill 3, the Couillard government’s contentious pension reform legislation. The protest actions got underway early this morning, when a group of demonstrators in Quebec City trying to stop city buses from leaving the garage. Police officers arrived at the garage at 6 a.m. to put a stop to that action.

Here in Montreal, pickets are blocking the entrance to The Port of Montreal. A couple of fire trucks painted black have been parading around the west end, and firefighters’ union head Ronald Martin — one of the dozens of firefighters suspended for his role in a raucous demonstration at Montreal City Hall on Aug. 18 — says that’s just one of many actions his union has planned for the day.

Full story: The municipal workers’ ‘day of disruption’ — in photos and video