Right to strike | Jean Boulet ventures onto “slippery terrain”, according to the CSN

(Montreal) The president of the CSN, Caroline Senneville, warns the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, that he is venturing onto “slippery terrain” if he wants to reduce the scope of the right to strike by equipping himself with a article of law similar to that which was invoked by its federal counterpart to put an end to labor disputes.

During her press conference at the start of the year, Monday in Montreal, the president of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux deplored the fact that the Minister of Labor had thus “thought out loud” during an interview on Radio- Canada, just before Christmas.

In fact, Minister Boulet raised the possibility of modifying the Quebec Labor Code to include an article similar to the one that exists in the Canadian Labor Code and which allowed the federal minister, Steven MacKinnon, to intervene in the rail conflict.

This article was also invoked in port conflicts, but, in the case of the 1,200 longshoremen at the Port of Montreal, the parties finally undertook a final mediation, in November, before coming to binding arbitration.

“We are going to talk to each other between unions and we are going to talk to the minister. It has already started; I have already had an initial conversation with the minister to tell him “you are venturing onto slippery territory, because it is contested”. Then you could make a law that would be declared unconstitutional. So be careful, be careful! » launched M^me Senneville.

The Saskatchewan decision, handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada in January 2015, ruled that the right to strike benefits from constitutional protection, because it serves to rebalance the balance of power between the parties.

Moreover, the Teamsters union, affiliated with the FTQ, which was targeted by the interventions of the federal Minister of Labor in the conflicts in the rail, at CN and at the CPKC, is contesting this intervention in court. The case has not yet been heard.

“The strike in Canada is regulated; it’s the rule of law,” launched M^me Senneville.

“We will not skimp on the means of action to enforce the right to strike that we have,” exclaimed the union leader.

Strikebreakers and sanctions

The president of the CSN also deplored what she described as “anti-union backlash” through the employment of replacement workers, during strikes or lockouts.

We have had “a lot of strikebreakers” during labor disputes, she argues, even though this is prohibited by the Labor Code.

She therefore asks the Minister of Labor to provide for more severe sanctions against employers who use these replacement workers, because at present, when they do so and the union complains to the Administrative Labor Tribunal, “there are never consequences”, even if the union wins its case.