Collective agreements | Inflation at the heart of “negotiations”

Inflation is likely to play spoilsport between unions and employers this year, after ending 2021 at a three-decade high. In a context of rising prices, more than ever, the wage issue will be at the heart of negotiations when the time comes to renew employment contracts.

Julien Arsenault
The Press

On the one hand, union representatives who plead for wage increases by evoking the erosion of the purchasing power of their members. On the other, companies trying to temper demands by asserting that inflationary pressures will eventually fade: this is the kind of exchange that will no doubt end up at the heart of the talks.

Unions, employers and labor law specialists agree on one aspect: inflation should not be the cause of a sharp increase in labor disputes in 2022 after a year when they were on the rise.

Measured by the consumer price index (CPI), inflation reached 4.8% last December. The increase in wages over the same period is 2.6%.

“There are going to be good discussions at the negotiating tables, predicts the general secretary of the Fédération des Travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), Denis Bolduc. Salaries, often, it stumbles on this issue between the two parties. »

In his opinion, the salary issue will regain the upper hand after giving way to normative issues – which generally have little financial impact on the employer – and concerning “work-family arrangements” in recent years. years.

An upsurge in conflict

After a lull in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no less than 262,000 workers were affected by labor disputes in 2021, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity . This represents some 795,500 person-days lost – which is obtained by multiplying the number of employees affected by the number of working days lost.

The past year was marked in particular by walkouts in the slaughterhouses of Olymel (Vallée-Jonction) and Exceldor (Saint-Anselme) as well as in the network of early childhood centres.

Some 170 conflicts have been identified by the Ministry – compared to 34 in 2020 – while 2021 was “particular”, according to its spokesperson, Catherine Poulin. She explains that in the CPEs, strikes were counted by “accreditation groups”. This increases the number of work stoppages counted.

However, the latter does not expect a meteoric rise in strikes or lockouts. MM. Blackburn and Bolduc abound in the same direction, like the first vice-president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), François Enault.

“It’s one factor among many others, believes lawyer François Longpré, who specializes in labor law at BLG. But it’s in their toolbox [aux syndicats] to ask for more money. We will hear about it at the negotiation tables. »

The CSN is preparing to address the subject. After the negotiation of the 2020-2023 employment contracts in the public sector which ended last year, the process will soon start again according to the rules in force.

“We are already looking at the whole notion of indexation, the loss of purchasing power,” says Mr. Enault. We have always negotiated wages, but the notion of inflation was less present. »

A negotiation game

The president of the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ) believes that we cannot ask for everything by evoking inflation. Is it vigorous or transient? What effect will central bank intervention have on rising prices? The answers are not clear, believes Mr. Blackburn. Companies are also suffering from inflationary pressures, he adds, and some may not be strong enough to meet all the demands.

The first vice-president of the CSN sees things differently.

“If inflation is at 5% and an employer arrives proposing increases of between 1 and 2%, we agree that it won’t work,” says Mr. Enault. If 3% increases worked when inflation was 2.5%, a 1% hike won’t work if prices go up 5%. »

In some cases, the CPQ believes, a compromise can be found with an employment contract that includes salary indexation provisions if inflation is higher than the expected increases.

This was the case for some 550 workers at the Exceldor processing plant in Saint-Anselme, in Chaudière-Appalaches, who accepted the employers’ offers last June after a strike of about a month.

Mr. Blackburn believes that “new parameters”, such as indexation provisions, should be found in several collective agreements while determining whether the inflationary pressure will take time to fade.