Sûreté du Québec police officers will take the “clown pants” once popularized by their Montreal police colleagues out of mothballs to protest the lack of progress in negotiations over their next collective bargaining agreement.
• Also read: SQ police officers fundamentally reject the agreement
• Also read: Pressure tactics: Special police officers pull out their clown pants
The Association of Quebec Provincial Police Officers (APPQ) asked its members to wear camouflage jeans or cargo pants during their work hours starting Thursday.
The union said it met with the Treasury Department on Oct. 13 to present its demands and finally received a response on Wednesday, nearly two months later.
“During this meeting, the government was unable to show us its willingness to reach an agreement by improving the first agreement, which was rejected by members. The requests made by the APPQ after the fundamental rejection of the first agreement remain without a positive response for the time being,” complained the president of the APPQ, Jacques Panchaud.
Last July, the APPQ and the government agreed in principle to a pay rise of 21% over five years. However, this agreement was rejected in September by 59.4% of the union’s approximately 5,700 members. Since then, the two camps have not been able to agree on a new offer.
The return of camouflage trousers in public spaces will be a reminder of the labor conflict surrounding the retirement plan for SPVM police officers. In 2014, police began wearing cargo pants, which were quickly dubbed “clown pants,” particularly when police made an impression by attending the national funeral of Jacques Parizeau wearing their cargo pants.
This conflict even led the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard to pass a law banning this change of uniform. However, the law was declared unconstitutional and invalidated by the Supreme Court last summer, leaving the field open for SQ police officers to use this colorful leverage on their part.
Note that the special police officers responsible for enforcing order in the courthouses also brought out their “clown pants” in early November to put pressure on the Council of Ministers to ratify their new collective agreement.