With the province's major fall road work blitz almost underway, government engineers say they will go back on strike.
The union representing the 1,400 provincial engineers - about half of whom work for the Transport Ministry - said the strike will begin September 18, and will take place each week day outside normal working hours (7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.) and on weekends.
By refusing to work any type of overtime the engineers could cause serious problems for many major projects this fall. The previous strike stalled more than 200 worksites at the beginning of the summer.
Treasury Board President Pierre Moreau did not seem fazed by the news.
During the last government engineer strike Moreau repeatedly said he would not hesitate to introduce back-to-work legislation if contract talks continued to stall and the strike caused serious work delays.
On Wednesday he indicated should the latest pressure tactic have a similar result he would act quickly.
The engineers union has been fighting for a 20 per cent increase to their salaries, saying the minimum salary for a member working for the government is $74,000 while a Hydro-Quebec technician can make $82,000.