The Laurentien Bank is closing 50 of its branches and laying off hundreds of employees over the next year and a half.
The bank announced the change at a meeting Wednesday afternoon at the Palais des Congres.
Many of its branches in and around Montreal were closed for most of the day, so employees could attend the meeting.
Staff was told most of the 300 job cuts will come through attrition.
Union spokesperson Josee Cioffi tells CTV News the cuts will adversely affect customers, as the bank cuts back on the range of products it offers.
"These are positions that some of them are going to be retired, but some are positions that were never replaced. So our employees at the branch levels, especially at the branches, are hard working and are very tired. We're missing a lot of staff." she says.
The bank recently proposed eliminating bank tellers in order to focus on investment counselling but the union opposed the plan and it was rejected by the Canada Industrial Relations Board.