MONTREAL — Some 1,000 unionists rallied here March 14 to demand the Quebec government withdraw the proposed anti-labor Bill 89. They rallied near the Plaza Centre-Ville where Quebec Minister of Labour Jean Boulet was scheduled to speak.
The bill would allow the Quebec government to force striking workers back to work and impose contracts on them through binding arbitration, a direct attack on the right to strike.
All the four major union federations — the Quebec Federation of Labour, Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), Quebec Labour Congress and the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions — joined the rally, as well as the Inter-professional Health Federation of Quebec, Autonomous Education Federation, Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services, Quebec government professional workers, and the Quebec civil service union.
Caroline Senneville, president of the CSN, told City TV, “All the unions in Quebec are represented here. This is a first demonstration, and I can tell you it won’t be the last.”
In an open letter to the provincial government, the nine union organizations point out “if Bill 89 can be said to benefit one group in particular, it’s certainly that of the bosses.” They announced they were convening a wider meeting of labor March 31 to discuss what to do next to defeat the government attack.
“This is a frontal attack in response to our mobilization in 2023,” Melanie Hubert, president of the Autonomous Education Federation, said. That was the massive mobilization of 600,000 Quebec public workers during their last negotiation with the government. Their fight for better conditions in health care and education for the working class won widespread support.
More union delegations attend
Some postal workers also joined the protest. The federal government had ordered them back to work last December. In September Ottawa did the same thing to longshore workers on the west coast as well as in Montreal and Quebec City.
“I am here because I want to work to keep the present relationship of forces and all the things we have won in the past,” Richard Martin, president of Local 255 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in Vaudreuil, a suburb of Montreal, told the Militant.
A contingent of workers locked out by bosses at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, members of the CSN, participated. “They can’t gag us, they can’t stop us from demonstrating,” Chana Francois explained. “They only think of their pockets.” Locked out for three months, the workers were just hit with an injunction limiting their picketing.
A contingent representing the 2,000 teaching aides on strike against Concordia University also joined in.
“The demonstration was a great opportunity for different union parties to reunite and fight against this atrocious bill the government is putting in place,” Giulio Archambeault, a Canadian National rail worker and member of the Teamsters, said.
Last summer the federal government intervened to end a national rail strike and imposed binding arbitration. “Management uses this to get their way,” Archambeault said. “Arbitrators are usually on management’s side.”