the strike - Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain–CSN

Conseil central
du Montréal
métropolitain–CSN
November 2015
Volume 29
Number 8
CSN Institutions in Montreal,
Laval and Northern Quebec
Soon on Strike
Cégep de Saint-Laurent
Collège Montmorency
Collège de Maisonneuve
Cégep du Vieux Montréal
John Abbott College
Collège Ahuntsic
Cégep Marie-Victorin
Dawson College
Vanier College
Collège de Rosemont
Cégep André-Laurendeau
Cégep Gérald-Godin
Commission scolaire de Montréal and English
Montreal School Board Schools
Commission des services juridiques
Commission des droits de la personne
et des droits de la jeunesse
Centre de réadaptation Lucie-Bruneau
MAB-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre
Agence de la santé et des services
sociaux de Montréal
Agence de la santé et des services
sociaux de Laval
CHU Sainte-Justine
Jewish General Hospital
Maimonides Geriatric Centre
CHSLD Bourget
Grace Dart Extended Care Centre
COMMON FRONT
THE STRIKE
IS ON
Hôpital de réadaptation Villa Médica
Hôpital Rivières-des-Prairies
Institut de cardiologie de Montréal
CHSLD Providence Notre-Dame de Lourdes
Institut universitaire en santé mentale
de Montréal (Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine)
Institut de réadaptation
Gingras-Lindsay-de-Montréal
Buanderie centrale de Montréal
St. Mary’s Hospital Center
Hôpital Santa Cabrini
Centre jeunesse de Laval
Centre jeunesse de Montréal
Centre d’accueil Les Cèdres
Centre Dollard-Cormier
Module du Nord québécois
Centre hospitalier de l’Université
de Montréal (CHUM)
Centre de réadaptation de l’Ouest
de Montréal
Centre de réadaptation en déficience
intellectuelle et en troubles envahissants
du développement de Montréal
McGill University Health Centre
Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal
CSSS de Laval
CSSS d’Ahuntsic et Montréal-Nord
CSSS de la Montagne
CSSS Lucille-Teasdale
CSSS de la Pointe-de-l’Île
CSSS Cavendish
CSSS de Saint-Léonard et Saint-Michel
CSSS Jeanne-Mance
CSSS de Bordeaux-Cartierville–
Saint-Laurent
CSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île
Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont
CSSS du Cœur-de-l’île
CSSS du Sud-Ouest–Verdun
Palais des congrès de Montréal
Ungava Tulattavik Health Center
Inuulitsivik Health Center
Cree Board of Health and Social Services
of James Bay
Votes to Come : Régie des installations
olympiques
Strike Movements
Are ON!
T
he CSN’s members of the Common Front are
demanding to be treated with respect. Over
the course of a month-long marathon of general assemblies, union members in health care,
social services, education, higher education and
the public sector have voted overwhelmingly to
support the Common Front’s proposal: rotating
6-day strikes. In particular, the Conseil central’s
affiliated unions in Montreal, Laval and Northern
Quebec boast a 100 % rate of support for strike
mandates from their general assemblies across
the board! Packed assemblies have been breaking records for participation as, everywhere, union
members have come out to
express their anger. They
are determined to improve
their working conditions, but
most decidedly, they want to
see the value of their work
recognized.
The national demonstration on October 3 was
another powerful example
of this determination. Some
150,000 fed-up workers took
to the streets of Montreal —
an incredible first in the history of public sector bargaining! On the job,
workers are letting their employers know they
are angry in a thousand different ways, such as
decorating with stickers, occupying the offices of
the boss or board of directors, correcting papers
in hallways, holding activist Zumba sessions
and rocking their union t-shirts. Union protesters also targeted symbolic venues, including
banks and financial institutions, during two
weeks of socioeconomic disturbance events.
In October, there were
several actions during the
disturbance weeks.
2 • Unité November 2015
Dominique Daigneault
Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain–CSN
simultaneous barrage of demands at different
sectoral bargaining tables regarding work organization; schedule changes and introducing
atypical scheduling; more labour availability,
flexibility and mobility; heavier workloads;
restrictions on union rights; professional independence; ever-shifting job security regulations;
and the outsourcing and privatization of services.
The list of demands is so lengthy that it leaves us
wondering whether bargaining isn’t being used
as an opportunity to go ahead and dismantle the
government apparatus of Quebec, piece by piece.
Union Strength:
Union Strikes!
The Quebec government claims that its coffers are empty and it doesn’t have the means
to meet the Common Front’s demands. No way,
we say!! This issue is a question of political will.
If the government wanted to act in the public
interest it could dig a little deeper to find the
money where it’s been sitting all along: in the
pockets of the corporations and financial institutions, who have been avoiding/evading taxes
and benefiting from generous tax shelters.
While union members continue to take
their protest actions up a notch, the Conseil
du trésor (Quebec’s treasury board) continues
to dig in its heels. After a year of bargaining
with the government, union demands on issues
like lagging public service wages, job instability, private sector outsourcing and professional independence are still not being properly
addressed.
Meanwhile the working conditions of tens
of thousands of people are under attack.
Management has launched an endless,
Based on the attitude the
Liberal government is taking,
we’ll need to fight back hard.
That’s why 400,000 Common
Front workers are launching
their rotating strike movement. In the weeks ahead,
alternating strikes will be
held in different regions
of Quebec. On October 29
and on two consecutive
days, November 16 and 17,
strike action will take place
in Montreal and Laval. And on December 1, 2
and 3, every union in the Common Front will be
on strike at the same time throughout Quebec.
We’ve had enough of doing more with less
and less all the time! In the battle ahead, let’s
show just how determined we are to defend
our public services and improve our working
conditions.
frontcommun.org
E
Fiscal Pact
Denying Our Rights Outright
Manon Perron
Secretary-General, CCMM–CSN
T
he Quebec government claims it signed the fiscal
pact with municipalities in Quebec for the greater
good. It loosened its purse strings, cancelling
some of its budget cuts. The province thereby indicated
that municipalities should have more independence. But
in reality, the pact is founded on the backs of workers
and will have damaging effects on union organizations.
Municipal, private and federal wages are still
higher than comparable Quebec provincial public sector
wages, as many have pointed out during the bargaining
process. Anyone can see there is an undeniable wage lag
among Quebec government employees, but still we hear
that “Public finances are in such a state that there’s no
way to change the situation. So, too bad for you.”
In their criticisms of the Fiscal Pact, news
commentators have objected to the improved salary
conditions municipal employees will receive, painting
them as being spoiled compared to other public sector
workers. But, at the same time, the legitimacy of
collective agreement bargaining for municipal workers
is under attack. Cities have been given the authority
to impose working conditions on their employees.
Whichever way you slice it, it’s obvious that there are
persistent prejudices towards unionized workers.
Now let’s get real. The wage raise received by
municipal employees has meant that the men and
women who work to build our thriving cities and
communities can maintain and improve their standard
of living. Like any other citizens, that means they can
provide for their families and contribute to their local
community. It is outrageous for anyone to claim that
they are the “fat cats” in our society.
Strikes: Our Constitutional Right
Contrary to popular belief, most collective agreements
get negotiated without any major confrontation. That
said, the good Mayor Labeaume’s fervent attempt at
“Rebalancing power dynamics” (in conjunction with the
Union of Quebec Municipalities) may well mark the end
of industrial peace throughout Quebec. His approach to
labour relations flies in the face of the Supreme Court
of Canada’s January 30, 2015 decision (Saskatchewan
Federation of labour v. Saskatchewan) which stipulating
that, like bargaining, strikes are intrinsic to the right
to association, a constitutional right. The highest court
in the land has evolved. It has come to recognize the
different facets involved in achieving a true balance
in power dynamics — a balance that is conducive to
negotiating collective agreements. Strikes are therefore a
protected right and Minister Couillard and his Municipal
Affairs minister, Pierre Moreau, are denying workers
their constitutional rights when they issue decrees about
working conditions.
Looking back on labour history, what we see is
that the most gruelling, violent conflicts took place
when labour law was lacking and arbitrary conduct
towards workers was authorized. At the beginning of
the 1960s, unionization in both Quebec’s provincial and
municipal public sectors put an end to a long period
of patronage and favouritism in the administration of
government affairs. More recently, the Charbonneau
Commission found a direct link between loss of
expertise (at Quebec’s transportation ministry and in
the municipal administration) and the proliferation of
corruption and cronyism. The contract-sharing system
in Montreal between mafia construction company
owners inflated prices for infrastructure construction
work by 20% to 30%. So it’s hardly likely that exposing
public servants to the arbitrary conduct of mayors and
elected municipal officials will promote transparency
in accountability. Instead, it will become increasingly
difficult for workers to sound the alarm if their jobs are
not protected by union rights.
Municipal governments could have called the
provincial Liberal government to account simply by
refusing budget cuts, but that would have taken
courage. Courage is something we have the right to
demand more from our elected officials.
Now an organized push-back against the provincial
government’s conditions is being mounted by the
municipal sector unions at the Fédération des employées
et employés de services publics–CSN (the federation that
represents public service employee’s at the CSN). We’ll
show them what courage looks like!
Unité November 2015 • 3
Complaint against the Police
and the City of Montreal
for Discrimination Based
on Political Conviction
Undermining the Right
to Demonstrate
T
Are We All Still Allowed
to Demonstrate?
T
he Conseil central is backing
a complaint filed in September
of this year at the Commission des
droits de la personne et des droits
de la jeunesse (CDPDJ — Quebec’s
human rights/children’s rights
commission) following an excessively forceful police intervention at a demonstration held by
the Collective Opposed to Police
Brutality on March 15, 2015. The
demonstration was never allowed
to take place as Montreal police
(the SPVM) prohibited it before it
began. SPVM officers proceeded
to kettle about 100 people for
two hours, later charging them
with “obstruction of traffic” under
Quebec’s Highway Safety Code.
Dominique Daigneault, president
of the Conseil central, was among
those charged, receiving a ticket
for $504. The Conseil central was
an “Observer” at the demonstration and denounced the police
Photos : CCMM–CSNarchives
4 • Unité November 2015
operation, describing it as “unacceptable abuse.” Some 550 police
officers were deployed, including
the riot squad, the mounted police
and a Sureté du Québec helicopter,
while people were gathering in an
atmosphere of calm.
In a complaint filed at the
Commission (the CDPDJ) by about
29 people, the Conseil central alleges that those charged were victims
of discrimination based on political conviction, according to section
10 of Quebec’s Charter of Human
Rights and Freedoms.
If the complaint is accepted,
the CDPDJ may refer the case to
Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal,
as it did for the first time this
summer in the case of political discrimination. On July 3, the CDPDJ
filed a suit against Quebec city and
its police service on behalf of 36
people who, according to them,
were victims of political profiling
during a peaceful feminist Quebec
city demonstration in April 2012.
After some investigation, the
commission concluded that “The
police intervention [concerning]
peaceful demonstrators who did
not represent any true danger to
public safety, along with the police
methods that were used had the
effect of disproportionally repressing the fundamental rights of the
victims. This intervention constituted a form of political profiling
notably aimed at discouraging
future demonstrations [from being
held].” 1
Observing
Political Profiling
This complaint was filed to make
sure the political profiling of the
people who questioned the police
force as an institution is fully
recognized. Punitive damages are
Our translation.
1
here is a system of political and police repression in
Quebec, according to Quebec’s
Civil Liberties Union (or the
“Ligue,” [Ligue des droits et libertés] as it is commonly known).2 In
a report made public in June of
this year, the Ligue laid out the
proof of its statement: that some
7,000 people have been arrested
over the course of demonstrations held between March 15,
2011 and May 1, 2015.
“The repression of social and
political protest in Quebec is
taking on alarming proportions.
The Quebec police corps possesses a crowd-control weapons
arsenal that it uses with total
impunity to put down demonstrations,” according to the Ligue,
which has observed that activists
must now “devote a great deal of
energy to defending themselves
and [must] turn to the courts as
an instrument of struggle and
protest.”3 The Ligue maintains
that the constitutionality of antidemonstration measures must
be challenged before the courts.
It also urges people to continue
to take to the streets to protest
together.
Manifestations et répressions, Ligue
des droits et libertés, June 2015.
3
Our translation.
2
also being sought so that political
repression can be acknowledged
and denounced.
A class action suit has been
filed at the CDPDJ against the city
of Montreal in the same matter.
Emmanuelle Proulx
Union Advisor