A construction site is a ceaseless movement of separate actions that must coordinate to succeed. The delay of a subcontractor in the delivery of part of a project leads to a series of successive impacts which substantially increase the costs and time to complete it.
The deadlines are just as tight for the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, to reform the rules surrounding work in the construction industry. The collective agreements binding the employer and union parties expire on April 30, 2025. Although this date may seem distant, we must take into account the traditional period of raiding punctuated by fratricidal struggles between union centers which will take place from 1er as of May 31, 2024.
The same stakeholders will then have to determine among themselves the functioning of their negotiating bodies taking into account their new representativeness before beginning the consultation of their members across the four corners of Quebec and thus identify their new priorities for the negotiation. We might as well say that from April 30, 2024, one year before the end of the schedule, there will be practically no more subscribers to the number dialed.
The bill that the Minister of Labor will soon table could face a powerful wind of resistance to change in an already effervescent union context. For example, certain unions have already contested the legitimacy of the consultation work prior to the tabling of the bill.
For economic circles, the expectations have the merit of being clear. The government will undoubtedly have to draw on its proverbial reserve of courage in order to successfully carry out the important changes necessary for an industry which is facing galloping inflation and serious productivity challenges.
Parliamentarians, from all parties, will have the obligation to achieve the adoption of a law and to complete the delivery of the expected and promised historic project. Postponing this reform would be inconceivable, the stakes are too high. The housing crisis, a clear face of the issues facing Quebec, would be one of the first beneficiaries of the expected changes.
According to the latest annual report of the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) published for the year 2022, the average construction worker governed by collective agreements only worked 1,062 hours per year due to the overly strict rules of the industry regarding professional and geographic mobility. Despite an enviable average hourly remuneration of $45.39, workers report an average annual salary of nearly $48,000, far from the threshold of “good paying jobs” so sought by Prime Minister François Legault.
In all of this, investors will also have to be reassured that their sites will not be disrupted by pressure tactics and strikes during each collective agreement negotiation. Examples have multiplied recently regarding the limits of the unbridled exercise of the good old balance of power and the construction industry has paid the price over the last decades.
Governments cannot be expected to pass special back-to-work laws in every conflict. Parliamentarians will have to consider the adoption of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, providing, for example, the threat of the imposition of compulsory arbitration.
I invite all citizens to closely follow the debates surrounding this reform announced for the coming months. In one way or another, we all benefit from having a construction sector that delivers on time.