Vol. 81/No. 23      June 12, 2017

 

Quebec construction workers protest
return-to-work order

 
MONTREAL — Thousands of striking construction workers from throughout Quebec demonstrated in Quebec City May 29 to protest the Liberal government’s decision to invoke Bill 142 ordering them back to work. Some 175,000 unionized construction workers had walked off the job five days earlier, striking against concession contract proposals, including provisions for forced overtime.

The workers are organized in an alliance of construction workers that includes the Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) and the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) and three other unions. They had been without a contract with the bosses represented by the Quebec Construction Association since April 30.

The union alliance organized mass meetings in 11 cities on May 16 to prepare the strike. The bosses refused to withdraw demands that included abolishing the five-day workweek, letting employers unilaterally change workers’ schedules at any time, with no supplementary compensation.

“If the weather is too bad, they will force us to come in on a Saturday, whatever you have planned. I cannot accept that,” Alain Lebrasseur, a construction worker on the Champlain Bridge in Montreal, told Global News.

“Employers are asking us to sacrifice time with our families to be available for work,” said Michel Trépanier, spokesperson for the alliance of construction unions. “There are limits and they’ve been reached.”

One striker carried a picket sign showing a ballot with a choice between family and slavery, with an “x” beside family. The second day of the strike thousands of unionists demonstrated with their families in several regions of Quebec.

In the Montreal area hundreds of workers picketed at the huge construction sites for the Turcot highway interchange, the new Champlain Bridge, and the CHUM hospital.

From the first day of the strike, Quebec Labor Minister Dominique Vien threatened to outlaw the strike. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, whose administration has poured millions into construction projects in preparation for the city’s 375th anniversary celebration this summer, urged the provincial government to step in.

The government used the law to bar any further strike action and impose mediation through October. After that any unresolved issues will be subject to binding arbitration. The law gives the workers a 1.8 percent salary increase until a new contract is reached — lower than the 2.6 percent workers were demanding. The union alliance says it will challenge Law 142 in the courts.

Four years ago the Quebec government used strikebreaking legislation to order some 77,000 residential, commercial, and institutional construction workers back to work.
 
 
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