Montrealers are facing a month-long transit strike that starts this weekend

MONTREAL — Metro and bus service in Montreal is expected to be disrupted nearly every day this November because of a transit strike involving about 2,400 maintenance workers and separate strike action by nearly 4,500 bus drivers, metro operators and other transit employees.

Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 28, buses and metros will operate only during morning and afternoon rush hours, and late at night, due to the strike by the maintenance workers. The schedule was decided by a provincial labour tribunal mandated to determine the minimal level of service required for public health and safety.

Late Thursday afternoon, the tribunal also approved a separate one-day strike by bus drivers, metro operators and other employees that would shut down all metro and regular bus service for 24 hours, starting at 4 a.m. on Saturday.

The tribunal made this decision despite concerns raised by the Montreal Alouettes, which are hosting a Canadian Football League playoff game on Saturday, and the Montreal airport authority, which asked for service to be maintained on an express bus line that links the city’s Trudeau airport with downtown.

Jean-René Lafrance, the lawyer for the transit agency, said it wasn’t opposed to the one-day strike on Saturday. The strike would proceed if the two sides fail to reach a new deal before the end of the day on Saturday.

The transit agency — Société de transport de Montréal — had argued before the labour tribunal that service should be extended on Sunday due to municipal elections, with polls open in Montreal between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Voter turnout has been low in recent elections, notably in 2017 and 2021 when less than half of eligible voters cast ballots, the agency had said.

However, administrative judge François Beaubien didn’t agree, ruling that the level of service proposed by the union for Sunday was sufficient.

“When it comes to essential services, the tribunal’s role isn’t to weigh workers’ right to strike with citizens’ right to vote,” Beaubien wrote in his decision. “Rather, it must ensure that public health or safety isn’t endangered by the strike, by ensuring that essential services are maintained while infringing as little as possible on the right to strike.”

The bus and metro strike, Beaubien said, “will not prevent citizens from exercising their right to vote,” adding that most polling stations are within walking distance of voters’ homes.

Montreal’s paratransit bus service, for people with disabilities, will operate as usual during the month of November, including on Saturday, when all of the other bus routes and metro service will be shut down.

The upcoming strike will be the third by the maintenance workers union since June. In a statement, union president Bruno Jeannotte acknowledged the strike will affect the population, but he said the transit agency is partly to blame.

“We are putting all our energy into reaching an agreement that will be satisfactory,” he said in a news release. “If the (transit agency) maintains its hard line, remains inflexible, and continues to sit on its hands, it will be solely responsible for this strike, which could have been avoided.”

Roughly $9 million in revenue has been lost so far this year as a result of the transit strikes, according to an estimate shared Wednesday by the regional transit body that manages transit fare in Montreal.

The union representing the network’s bus drivers and metro operators, says its members were planning to strike for three days next month, including Nov. 15 and 16.

In a statement issued earlier on Thursday, the bus and drivers union said it was awaiting the tribunal’s decision about the Nov. 1 strike before it proposed a schedule for its strike action on Nov. 15 and 16.

A mediator is scheduled to join negotiations soon between bus and metro drivers and the transit agency.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.

Miriam Lafontaine, The Canadian Press