Did the president of the FTQ, Daniel Boyer, really believe that the Rénald Grondin affair would go away on its own after the resignation — he was due to retire in mid-May anyway — of the man who was president of the FTQ-Construction since 2018? The mere presence of this man in union leadership positions testifies to a profound evil that the revelations of the Charbonneau commission should have made it possible to eradicate.
As reported The Press Last week, Rénald Grondin was convicted of repeatedly harassing and sexually assaulting an executive secretary for two years. This is revealed by a 2012 decision of the Professional Injuries Commission which led to the payment of benefits to the victim, who suffered from anxiety and depression, under the Act respecting accidents at work and occupational diseases. . Fortunately for the trade unionist, no criminal complaint has been brought against him.
As if nothing had happened, Rénald Grondin kept his position as general manager of the Association des maneuvers interprovincials (AMI), an entity of the FTQ-Construction. In 2018, he was rewarded by being elected president of the FTQ-Construction, which represents 80,000 workers, the largest of the five unions in the construction sector in Quebec.
That Rénald Grondin was able to pursue such a fine career with the FTQ-Construction after his name was mentioned several times during the Charbonneau commission shows how little importance this important union places on probity. He was close to the former general manager of the FTQ-Construction Jocelyn Dupuis, sentenced to a year in prison for having defrauded the union, the man of the memorable bombings, whose relations with organized crime were documented.
On Tuesday, the FTQ-Construction issued a curious press release stating that the union had adopted “an action plan to adopt measures against psychological and sexual harassment as soon as possible”. Well, it’s been at least a decade since major organizations have implemented such measures. The directors of the syndicate look like dinosaurs fraternizing in their Jurassic Park.
Under pressure from the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, the FTQ waited Wednesday before announcing the holding of an independent investigation into the circumstances and the silences which allowed Rénald Grondin to run and be elected to the presidency. of the FTQ-Construction. It took the unanimous adoption of a motion in the National Assembly for the trade union center to agree to shed light on this intolerable situation and the “culture of opacity” it presupposes.
One wonders how it is that the man retained his position as director general of the AMI after being convicted of sexual assaults. You have to figure out who knew what in union circles. Anyway, M.and Robert Laurin, the lawyer who represented the AMI before the Professional Injuries Commission and who is the lawyer for the FTQ-Construction, he knew.
Daniel Boyer played down the responsibility of those who did not say anything. “The people who knew about it and didn’t say so, they’re not the attackers,” he told AFP. The Press. The president of the FTQ maintains that he himself was in the dark. There is every reason to believe, however, that members of the senior management of the FTQ-Construction, who had worked with Rénald Grondin for years, knew who they were dealing with. A culture of impunity and willful blindness seems to reign.
The Liberals introduced a motion calling on the government to change the law by the end of the parliamentary session in order to disqualify anyone who has been found guilty of harassment or sexual assault from any position of director or representative of a labor organization. . Although Minister Boulet and Premier François Legault were open to the idea, the motion was not accepted; it is better to wait for the conclusions of the investigation before legislating.
The FTQ-Construction enjoys an enormous privilege, membership in a union and the payment of dues to it being compulsory to work in the field. With that privilege should come duties.
For years, attempts have been made to open up the construction sector to women. However, their progress there is minimal—they make up just over 2% of the workforce—and the drop-out rate is high. At the FTQ-Construction, with leaders like Rénald Grondin and his friends who covered for him and said nothing, with these men and their manliness, things are not about to change.