Quebec ferry company: Unlimited strike mandate, allege bad faith negotiations

Some 150 union members of the Société des traversiers du Québec have just been given a mandate for an unlimited general strike.

These are the navigation officers and engineer officers, members of the Metalworkers’ Union, affiliated with the FTQ.

The strike mandate was adopted by a 91 per cent majority. If necessary, seven days’ notice would be given before the strike actually begins, the union announced on Friday.

The collective agreement expired on March 31, 2023. The dispute mainly concerns salary increases and the use of subcontracting.

“After two years without a contract and three years without a wage increase, our members have been very patient. But that patience has reached its limit. The pressure tactics have been very limited so far. The government and the Société des traversiers du Québec are unduly delaying the process. If we are now taking such an unlimited strike mandate, it is because of the negligence of the government and the STQ,” criticized Luc Laberge, representative responsible for the maritime sector at the United Steelworkers’ Union.

Negotiations have not been broken off.

“Negotiations are continuing and we have a conciliation day next Monday, May 12, at the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity, with the conciliator and the union,” announced the management of the Société des traversiers.

She said she was available to continue negotiations and “avoid resorting to strikes in the future, but ultimately, it is not the STQ that chooses the pressure tactics,” she recalled.

Complaint to the Court 

The union also filed a complaint of bad faith bargaining against the Ferry Company.

“After nearly a year following the submission of the union’s monetary demands and, despite compromises and the acceptance of compensation by the union, the employer has still not, for any of the four tables, presented a real monetary offer, neither regarding salary increases nor regarding the union’s other monetary demands,” the union argues in its complaint to the Administrative Labor Tribunal.

“By its failure to cooperate in a genuine dialogue, its hostility towards the negotiation process and its delaying tactics, the employer is acting neither diligently nor in good faith,” the union adds in its complaint.

He therefore asks the Administrative Labour Tribunal to declare that the STQ failed in its obligation to negotiate in good faith and to order it to continue negotiations diligently and in good faith.

The STQ management did not want to give an interview “so as not to harm the negotiations.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews