Indefinite strike called in Quebec’s residential construction industry

The strike officially began in the residential construction sector at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, after negotiations in the final hours failed to reach an agreement.

More than 60,000 of the Alliance syndicale de la construction’s 200,000 members work in the residential sector.

“We sympathize with homeowners, for sure,” said Alliance syndicale spokesperson Alexandre Ricard. “We think that it is important if we want to build all the houses around Quebec. It’s important to have a good condition in the collective agreement. So that’s why we are on strike.”

“Hopefully we’re not there for a long strike,” added Isabelle Demers, the vice-president of strategic development, public affairs and innovation at the APCHQ. “We can find and reach a quick agreement. But at the same time, the union sits on the same offer since April 9th and APCHQ’s moved twice to reach an agreement with the union.”

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet warned that “we cannot afford to be patient” given the current housing shortage. “We will not be patient; Quebecers have the right to access housing, to houses,” Boulet said.

At the same time, however, Boulet assured that “we are not talking about special legislation” for the time being. He said he preferred to “analyze the impacts day by day.”

“I expect this to last as short a time as possible, for the good of everyone.”

The labour minister also reiterated his offer to the parties to refer the matter to an arbitrator, who would resolve the dispute, thus ending the labour dispute. He added that a mediator was still assigned to the case to facilitate dialogue between the parties.

Quebec Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau was blunt, saying a strike in residential construction “is the last thing we need right now, both for affordability and for time. The time we waste on construction is money.”

Last-minute offer

A few hours before the strike began on Tuesday, the Association des professionnels de la construction et de l’habitation du Québec (APCHQ) submitted a “final offer” to the Alliance syndicale.

According to the employer, this was an “18 per cent enhanced offer,” representing a 1.5 per cent increase over four years compared to the offer submitted on April 22 and a six per cent increase over the initial offers.

The Alliance syndicale, however, stated that the APCHQ’s latest offer “does not meet the monetary parameters” set by its members and that it “would impose significant setbacks that had not been previously mentioned during negotiations.”

“What happened in the last hours is just that the negotiation didn’t go well,” Ricard said.

The latest offer was not close to the 22 per cent for heavy residential construction and 24.35 per cent for light residential construction the Alliance syndicale wants over four years for its workers.

“We have three sectors that have been solved in a new collective agreement,” added Ricard. “They had a 22 percent increase. So we don’t know why the workers in the residential have to get less.”

As a result, the unlimited strike in residential construction began Tuesday night.

But the APCHQ says there’s a reason the offers are not the same.

“Eighteen per cent in the residential sector and 22 per cent in other sectors that reached an agreement is very different,” said Demers. “Different because it’s not the same client. In the residential sector, the client is always the people.”

“There’s a lot of unknown actually, we’re for sure concerned,” said Philippe Charbonneau, president of Norexco Construction, which has about a dozen sites in the Laurentians and North Shore that factor into this strike.

“It’s a serious problem. The projects are going to be delayed. There’s going to be an impact on schedules, on tenants, on customers, on price. There’s going to be an impact everywhere actually.

“On another hand, we understand that with the crazy inflation of the last years, the workers need to be able, like everyone out there, to be able to have a good earning, make savings and go a good living out of it.”

Added Walter Assi, the the president and CEO of Renovco: “It’s been challenging with the tariffs, getting the materials, working with the municipality. So already we have it not easy, if you wish, and to add another dimension of complexity, does not really help to motivate people to be in that business. I mean, there are contractors that are only in residential and now their operation is brought to a complete halt.”

At a press conference Wednesday morning, Ricard said that “the offers currently on the table from the APCHQ are unacceptable. It’s high time we reached a settlement.”

He said he remains open to negotiating with the APCHQ, but insisted on his slogan: “equal pay for equal work” for residential workers compared to workers in other construction sectors.

No further negotiation sessions were scheduled for Wednesday.

The Alliance syndicale brings together all the construction unions, in descending order of size: the FTQ-Construction, the Syndicat québécois de la construction, the Conseil provincial du Québec des métiers de la construction (International), the CSD-Construction, and the CSN-Construction.

Through these five unions, it represents 200,000 workers, some of whom work in the residential sector.

The other three sectors of the construction industry have renewed their 2025-2029 collective agreements: civil engineering and roads, industrial, and institutional/commercial.

“For sure we see this as a problem, it’s a serious problem,” said Charbonneau. “The projects are going to be delayed, there’s going to be impact on schedule, on tenants, on customers, on price.”

“There’s going to be impact everywhere actually,” he added. “So it’s nothing of a good news.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews