First trade union common front | “A unique strategy in North America”

50 years ago, the first union common front was formed in Quebec

Denis Lessard
The Press

” The prison ! The prison ! »

Robert Bourassa’s right-hand man, Jean-Claude Rivest has clear memories of his devastated boss bursting into his office in the spring of 1972. He had just learned that the union leaders of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) , the Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) and the Quebec Teachers’ Corporation (CEQ), Marcel Pepin, Louis Laberge and Yvon Charbonneau, had been sentenced to one year in prison for defying an injunction and inciting civil disobedience by proposing not to respect a special law which ordered the return to work of the 210,000 union members of the public sector.

The young prime minister had always had “cordial” relations with Pepin and Laberge. Strongly disapproving of this court decision, “he was worried about the impact on the international image of Quebec”, a state that was now locking down its union leaders, remembers Rivest. Subsequently, the special laws will never provide for imprisonment as a sanction, explains Mr.^and Jules Brière, a young constitutional lawyer at the time, who would later become the specialist in special laws in Quebec.

Fifty years ago, in April, the Bourassa government found itself negotiating for the first time with a coalition of the three main centrals in the public sector. Since then, the centrals have joined forces in 11 of the 14 rounds of negotiations with the government. Marcel Pepin, of the CSN, had been the linchpin of this first grouping – his central body dominated with 100,000 members, against 70,000 at the CEQ and 30,000 at the FTQ.

Historian Jacques Rouillard, professor emeritus at the University of Montreal, indicates that it was then “a unique strategy in North America”. But a union regrouping made perfect sense. Already, in 1970, the government had established itself as the only interlocutor before the federations in order to prevent an escalation in the demands of the groups present.

Unlimited general strike

The first “common front” will trigger an indefinite general strike on April 11. A central demand: a minimum wage of $100 per week for all. “Forty percent of union members earn less then. Mostly women,” observes historian Martin Petitclerc, professor in the history department at UQAM.

Ten days later, on April 21, the National Assembly adopted “Bill 19” at 6 am, forcing an end to illegal walkouts. The union leaders obviously want to defy the law. It’s less clear among rank-and-file members, who won’t rush to vote. Young activist, Michel Rioux then followed like his shadow Marcel Pepin, as head of communications for the CSN. “Late in the evening, we went to the Quebec TV station, and he reluctantly asked people to come back to work. »

The union leaders will not be able, in the appeal process, to have the verdict of their imprisonment overturned. “They served a third of their sentence, four months. Pepin spent all his weekends in Orsainville in the summer of 1972, no one had a pass,” says Michel Rioux.

A big win?

Fifty years later, these disappointments are forgotten. “The 1972 common front was a great victory,” said Daniel Boyer, president of the FTQ, in an interview this week. With the CSN and the CSQ, the center has just announced a new common front, 50 years after the first, for the next round of negotiations with Quebec. The agreements will expire on the 1^er April 2023. The $100 a week had not been obtained as a result of this confrontation, but in 1974. “We must not evaluate the results in the short term,” observes Mr. Boyer.

“You have to look at that over the long life. At this negotiation, job security had been strengthened everywhere, and especially the pension plan for government employees had been set up. If this had not been instituted, there are many retirees who would fear the end of the month, adds Michel Rioux. You have to look at these things in the long term. »

Martin Petitclerc still believes that this common front of 1972 ends badly for the unions. “It was an important moment, a more political negotiation,” he observes. The day after the adoption of Bill 19, union leaders wanted to defy the law, “but with the results, it was about half and half,” explains Mr. Petitclerc, author of strike and peaceon special laws in Quebec, published by Lux.

Above all, the solidarity of the first hours withers. It was at this time (at the very moment when Pepin was in prison) that a faction of the CSN, representing workers in the private sector, defected to form the Central of Democratic Trade Unions (CSD), still present in construction in particular . The CSN and the FTQ continue their raids on construction.

At the end of the year, we observe a “very fragmented” trade union movement, observes the historian. Teachers are defecting to have their working conditions imposed on them. The nurses, from the CSN, also leave on their side to form the Federation of Nurses and Nurses of Quebec (FIIQ). Ditto for employees, civil servants, of the Government of Quebec. Bus drivers, Hydro-Quebec workers: in the years following 1972, many groups disassociated themselves from the large power stations.

The unions are shaken by these defections, admits Jacques Rouillard, but the common front ends all the same with negotiated working conditions and appreciable salary increases. “Above all, we will add a salary indexation clause to the cost of living, which will prove to be very generous in the last two years of the agreement. Inflation is then on the rise,” observes the historian. The public sector power plants aimed to “open the way, to have a ripple effect” on the private sector, recalls the historian, author of the book Quebec trade unionism – Two centuries of historypublished by Boréal.

At the time, the public sector enjoyed a certain advantage, of the order of 10%, over employees in the private sector. “Today, we are 10% behind,” insists Daniel Boyer.