A conflict between the management of the CRH Canada Group cement plant (formerly Ciment St-Laurent) in Joliette and its hundred or so union members has grown to such proportions, according to management, that the latter appealed to the courts last week for stop bullying on its site. A provisional judgment was thus rendered Thursday so that the gatherings, demonstrations and picketing are contained outside the property line of the cement plant.
A judge ordered union members and anyone acting on their instructions to cease and desist from “entering or [de] be at all times and for any reason whatsoever inside the “de Joliette” property by crossing the fences installed on the property line […] including the land, parking lots and access and traffic routes ”, we read in a provisional judgment in effect for 10 days until November 5.
It also specifies that union members must cease and refrain from blocking, hindering and harming “directly or indirectly the free access of any person or vehicle entering or leaving” the cement plant. The number of union members who may be at the edge of the cement plant is also limited to 14.
Altercation
The management of the CRH Group has reported violent acts and intimidation on the part of certain union members and colleagues from affiliated unions since a lockout that occurred last spring at the cement plant.
Union members have been without a collective agreement since May 28. The union affirms in particular that this lockout is illegal, as the agreement had not expired and that the parties were in negotiation.
For months, since the announcement in November 2020 of the closure of two out of four kilns at the cement plant and the abolition of possible positions, the employer has maintained that there is a climate of disobedience (unauthorized absences, refusal to act overtime, etc.) and reports threats, harassment and intimidation towards executives, according to what can be read in an injunction request filed by the CRH Group.
The situation would have deteriorated particularly on October 22, when union members blocked the road to agents hired by CRH who were trying to enter the cement plant. One of them was allegedly hit to the point of breaking a tooth.
Later, dozens of union members reportedly went to the cement plant, near a building housing the cafeteria where there were executives. A dozen police were then called in to help manage the situation.
This altercation would have arisen the morning of a grouping of union members where the union representatives and a deputy addressed them in front of the fences of the cement factory. “It does not make sense, what is happening at the negotiating table, then proclaimed Renaud Gagné, Quebec director of the Unifor union. All we want is to provide an opportunity to have seniority recognized and a right to training for positions that employees have never occupied. We are not on the [pécuniaire], but on the recall list. However, the employer is taking all possible means not to use the recall list. He wants to call an agency. It’s much less trouble… It’s unacceptable! ”
Thursday, by email, because he was traveling, Renaud Gagné spoke to Press on the reason for the tensions. “You still have to understand, after five months thrown into the streets, that there is more tension,” he writes. I remind you that the mediation service of the Ministry of Labor suspended its work after 13 days of meetings with the new employer spokesperson Lucien Bouchard. When we can’t even agree to a minimum of respect, [soit] to manage a recall list to offer the maximum of opportunities to its employees in order to meet the needs of the company… ”
Press was unable to speak to the CRH Group lawyer as the case was still before the courts.
With the collaboration of Louis-Samuel Perron, Press