This text is part of the special 75th anniversary of the FEESP
Over the years, the FEESP has created three committees dedicated respectively to the status of women, to health, safety and the environment and to training and union life, in order to support its members on these three major issues.
“These three committees are statutory committees, explains Benoit Malenfant, president of the FEESP. That is to say that they were created following a resolution approved by the members of the FEESP during a general congress, which ensures their permanence. In other words, the executive committee and the federal office of the FEESP have no choice but to maintain and support these three committees.
Each committee is made up of a president and two members, all elected by the members of the FEESP during a general convention or a federal council. A member of the executive committee sits on each of them and they are supported by permanent employees of the FEESP, ie union advisors and office employees. They have the task of listening to the needs and claims of FEESP members, according to their respective fields of competence. They also have the obligation to inform the members of any new development which could concern their field of action.
“Next, the committees are responsible for implementing the necessary tools to properly inform and train our union officers,” underlines Benoit Malenfant.
Women’s trade unionism
“I can say that there are more women in our executives today than in the 1990s and even 2010! says Stéphanie Gratton, vice-president of the FEESP-CSN and political officer of the committee for the status of women. In 1997, the latter set up an equal access program to increase the representation of women in the unions affiliated to the federation.
The Committee for the Status of Women transmits to the unions the demands put forward by the movement on issues specific to women, and develops tools allowing them to take ownership of the files put forward by the committee. “Each year, we organize two days devoted to the status of women. For several years now, we have been inviting men to join us on the second day to talk about topical issues”, explains Stéphanie Gratton, who is delighted with the success of the formula: “They are always a full house! The two days of the 2022 session were held in April in Drummondville. “On the first day, there was a presentation on domestic violence. The next day, the men joined us for a conference by Francis Dupuis-Déri on masculinism,” explains the vice-president.
The committee has developed a guide to preventing harassment and violence in the workplace. He also created the FEESP women’s network, whose members receive the newsletter four times a year. Do they inform. This communication tool contains information on women’s issues and invites unions to reflect on the place of women in their structure and in their delegation, by giving concrete ways to increase their participation. As domestic violence has increased during the pandemic, the committee is now planning to adopt an action plan to support its members on this issue.
Year-round training
The training and union life committee proposes and coordinates training on various subjects, including labor relations (grievances, negotiations) and health and safety. “We train union activists throughout the year, everywhere across Quebec,” says Ms.me Gratton, who also ensures the political responsibility of this committee. Among the content created, the three-day training course on psychological harassment and violence in the workplace has met with great success. “We often double the sessions, because they fill up quickly,” she rejoices. One of the challenges of this committee is to be able to offer emergency sessions to meet the needs of a union. After long months of pandemic, we must also reconnect with union life, which is more complex to virtualize than training. The committee is also planning a major symposium in the winter of 2023.
A mission of prevention
“Our role is to work on health, safety and the environment and to bring proposals to the decision-makers of the federation”, summarizes for his part Simon Mathieu Malenfant, vice-president treasurer of the FEESP-CSN and political manager of the health-safety-environment committee. In the past, this committee led “great battles recognized on asbestos, lockout and mental health, which gave rise to training”, he underlines. One of the big challenges today is air quality. “There are air quality problems in schools and more generally in offices and public service establishments,” says Mr. Malenfant. The committee has intervened several times with the government since the start of the pandemic to obtain improvements in schools.
Although it still disputes its content, the committee also assists unions in the application of Bill 59 modernizing the occupational health and safety system (now Bill 27) and helps unions adapt to the transformation of their work environment, such as the electrical transition in transport, or the deposit of bottles of wine at the SAQ. “We are working together with all sectors to firmly anchor ourselves in the changes to come in terms of the work environment,” says the vice-president.
A great synergy
“It is important that there is a synergy between the committees and the sectors of activity, so that the particularities of each sector are well understood by the members of the committees, advances Benoit Malenfant. Such synergy can only strengthen the support of the committees for our sectors. »
Could there ever be more than three committees? “The federal office can create an ad hoc committee as it sees fit,” says Benoit Malenfant. Moreover, we have created one for the LGBTQ+ community, and if the need arises on another concern, a committee in this regard could be set up. But for an ad hoc committee to become a statutory, and therefore permanent, committee, the members of the FEESP would have to ratify this choice by vote at the general congress. It is our members who will decide if an issue is important enough to merit the creation of a statutory committee. »