February 01, 2014 - 4:47 PM
MONTREAL - An attempted robbery in Quebec is prompting a union leader to ask for a meeting with the federal public safety minister to talk about staffing levels for armoured cars.
Unifor president Jerry Dias says the robbery in the Montreal-suburb of Longueuil underscores the need for more security guards to ride in armoured cars.
Police say a suspected robber was killed this weekend when he tried to hold up two guards who were carrying cash from an ATM.
Police say the man was shot and later died in hospital _ the guards were hospitalized for nervous shock.
Dias says he wants to talk to Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney about safety in the armoured car industry.
He says having just two person crews on armoured cars servicing ATM's is just too tempting to robbers.
"Two-person crews are simply not safe. They are part of a race to the bottom that has to stop," Dias said in a news release issued Saturday.
It's the third robbery of a two person all off crew since last December, Dias said.
Unifor represents 2,000 workers in the armoured car industry.
The union is the result of a merger last year between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers unions.
The most high-profile armoured car robbery in recent years occurred in Edmonton in 2012 when an guard gunned down four crewmates, killing three of them.
They were restocking an ATM.
Travis Baumgartner pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 40 years.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014