Quebec union governance bill: Consultations to start Tuesday amid discontent

Union discontent is at its peak as special consultations on the CAQ bill on union transparency and governance are set to begin on Tuesday.

When he presented his bill, Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet said he wanted to ensure that union dues were used “in a manner consistent with the wishes of workers.”

He also said he wanted workers to be better informed about how the money they pay to unions is used.

Optional dues

The aspect of the bill that has caused the most controversy is the creation of the concept of “optional dues,” in addition to the main union dues.

The minister’s starting point is that “the core mission of a union is training, representation, and bargaining” and that everything else is optional.

He does not go so far as to prohibit unions from challenging laws in court, running advertising campaigns, or participating in social movements. However, in order to devote funds to these activities, unions will have to obtain their members’ approval for an optional dues payment for this purpose.

However, the role of unions cannot be reduced to strictly defending the working conditions of their members, argued FTQ President Magali Picard in an interview.

Unions have fought for subsidized childcare, improved employment insurance, pay equity, and against customs duties, she recalled.

“If we don’t fight to keep retirement at age 65, it could be pushed back to 67, even though pension plans start at 65. The same goes for parental leave and the fact that there are no user fees in hospitals. The FTQ’s full-time job is to lobby governments to defend the social income of ordinary people. So if we can no longer do that, we will all become poorer, both unionized and non-unionized workers,” exclaimed Picard.

One of its affiliated unions, the Métallos, has run advertising campaigns on the safety of road traffic flaggers. In 2015, it also campaigned for a deposit on glass, representing workers at Owens-Illinois glassworks who feared for their jobs.

In 2016, it also supported retirees from the Cliffs mining company who saw their pensions cut following the bankruptcy of the company’s Canadian subsidiary. The union’s legal action greatly mitigated the retirees’ losses.

The Métallos union is wondering whether it will be able to continue to run such campaigns, or whether it will have to ask its members for a voluntary contribution each time.

“This is an erosion of democracy, a weakening of countervailing powers” that the Legault government wants to achieve, said Nicolas Lapierre, Quebec director of the Métallos union, in an interview.

CSQ president Éric Gingras and CSN president Caroline Senneville have already criticized the government for trying to designate the unions as “the bad guys” in order to divert attention from its political, social, and economic record and boost its poll numbers.

“When it comes to advertising campaigns and participation in social movements, the government’s intention is clear on one point: it wants to further complicate everything related to legal challenges and court proceedings. It is therefore understandable that the legislature is intervening directly in the democratic life of unions to weaken their role as a counterweight to power and restrict their freedom of expression,” says the Syndicat québécois des employé(e)s de service (SQEES), affiliated with the FTQ.

Financial statements

The unions also object to the requirement that they submit audited financial statements, either a “review” for unions with 50 to 199 members, which would cost between $5,000 and $8,000, or an audit for unions with at least 200 members, which would cost $10,000.

The unions argue that such amounts jeopardize the ability of small unions to carry out their mission of defending their members.

According to the Métallos union, for small unions, such amounts can represent 10 per cent to 25 per cent of their operating budget.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews