The writer and professor Alain Beaulieu announced last Saturday on Facebook that he was resigning from his position on the board of directors of the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers (UNEQ).
“Several reasons motivated this withdrawal, which I will keep ‘inside me’ if you allow it”, wrote Mr. Beaulieu, who had agreed on December 19 to replace Pierre-Luc Landry as representative of the regions.
UNEQ, now authorized to negotiate collective agreements thanks to the new Status of the Artist Act, has been under fire from critics since mid-December. Members accuse the administrators of having made two decisions on the sly: the imposition of union dues and the sale of the Maison des écrivains, avenue Laval, in Montreal.
The dues imposed on members (2.5%) and non-members (5%) were voted on in a virtual general meeting where only 46 voters were present last summer. The forthcoming marketing of the Maison des Ecrivains, UNEQ’s head office, was approved by the Board of Directors without any official consultation.
In both cases, the mandate of the UNEQ is at the heart of the debates. Former administrators, dozens of writers and eleven honorary members out of thirteen — including Michel Tremblay, Gilles Vigneault, Jacques Godbout and Joséphine Bacon — criticize the current leaders for sacrificing the promotion of literature on the altar of the struggle union.
“I continue to believe that authors deserve to be represented collectively by a union-type association, and that this is a great step forward for them,” explains Alain Beaulieu, full professor in the Department of literature, theater and cinema from Université Laval. “However, I believe that this work of representation must be more clearly distinguished from the preliminary mandate of the UNEQ, in particular that of the promotion of literature. »
Two entities?
Mr. Beaulieu, in his message of withdrawal, pleads for the split of the UNEQ into two distinct entities, one refocused on the “representation of so-called literary writers” as well as on the promotion of literature, and the another for union purposes, “dedicated to defending the professional conditions of authors of all genres. »
According to its 2023-2025 action plan, the UNEQ intends to soon leave the Maison des écrivains, a historic building located in the square Saint-Louis, to join the premises of the Union des artistes.
The constitution of two boards of directors “would make it possible to preserve the Maison des writers as a place of gathering and identification for writers, the Syndicate being able to settle in the premises of rue De Gaspé, or elsewhere”, believes Mr. Beaulieu.