In the article devoted to writers published in The duty of December 15 (“All writers will be on the same footing”), we read that the Union of Quebec writers “was since its founding in 1977 a symbolic union and ‘we didn’t have the teeth’, in the the words of its director, [et qu’]it now has the power to negotiate collective agreements […] “.
Very good. Allow me, however, to recall that this union, “symbolic” as it was, had succeeded almost 40 years ago in negotiating the first agreement concerning reprography in educational establishments in Quebec. Since then, writers have received dollars each year that they had always been deprived of. I am fairly well placed to know this since, as Secretary General of the UNEQ, it is to me that the Union as well as the associations of publishers had entrusted the mandate to negotiate and sign the said agreement.
The UNEQ, a union still as “symbolic”, also fought at the same time for writers to be compensated for the loan of their books to the library. Well, before leaving UNEQ in the summer of 1987, I was able to rejoice with my colleagues that authors received their first check from the Public Lending Right program which still exists today, just like Copibec which manages now the reprography rights.
Can’t wait for more dollars in the pockets of writers and, in advance, thank you to the UNEQ which, soon, will cease once and for all to be a simple symbolic union.
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