At 10 p.m. on April 21, 1972, Marcel Pepin, then president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), and I left the Holiday Inn in Sainte-Foy in my Renault 16. months the negotiations of the Union Common Front with the Quebec government. At 6 a.m., the National Assembly had adopted special law 19 requiring the 210,000 workers in the public and parapublic sectors to return to work.
We head for the studios of Télé-4, rue Myrand. At 11 p.m., the presidents of the CSN, the FTQ and the CEQ will address the members, live, to convey to them the recommendation to end the strike launched ten days earlier.
We are escorted by two Sûreté du Québec vehicles. Pepin knows that what he is going to announce will deeply disappoint the most militant. On that fateful day, the following happened: as soon as the special law was adopted, the strikers were called upon to vote on the continuation of the strike. But the time allowed to reach them was really too short, the law coming into force at midnight. A majority that had spoken had voted for the continuation of the strike. But this majority had not been deemed sufficient to defy a law. It is therefore with a heavy heart that the presidents recommend the return to work.
Minister of Public Service, Jean-Paul L’Allier resigns, judging, in The sun, that “Law 19 is a failure”. Claude Ryan writes that “those who want to see reign […] a peace based on justice will have to work […] to better understand certain workers’ demands that have been heard too summarily until now by the employer party […] “.
But justice would continue its course, to the great displeasure of Robert Bourassa, who knew that the intransigence of his Minister of Justice Jérôme Choquette would not fail to trigger a serious social crisis.
The injunction prohibiting the strike, pronounced by judge Georges Pelletier—former organizer of the Liberal Party—was transformed into contempt of court. This charge is pleaded before Judge Pierre Côté. The presidents are convened at 2 p.m., at the beginning of May. At 2:15 p.m., the judge being late, Pepin gets up and says to Laberge and Charbonneau: “We are going out! The sentence: one year in prison.
On May 9, the presidents surrendered to justice, accompanied by some 5,000 people who rushed into rue Saint-Louis. They leave for Orsainville in a police van. Around the Cross of Sacrifice, the crowd presses. Vice-President Dalpé wants to speak. The crowd knows that he is undermining the Common Front. The crowd boos him. He cannot speak. Michel Chartrand snatches the microphone from him.
On May 10, anger broke out. In Sept-Îles, in Sorel, in Thetford Mines, local radio stations are occupied by militants. Spontaneous strikes break out in hundreds of companies. Jean Cournoyer, who replaces L’Allier, urges the presidents to appeal.
The 3-Ds
Events had accelerated. Taking advantage of the president’s imprisonment, three of the five members of the CSN’s management tried to seize the plant. The Dalpé, Dion and Daigle had missed their shot the previous October when Pepin had decided to stay on as president. On May 17, the Confederal Council sits. At the microphone, Michel Chartrand falls to his knees, hit by a punch delivered by a delegate acquired at 3-D. Dalpé puts an end to the Council in the ruckus. Two days earlier, in the Salle Jésus-Ouvrier, 3-D supporters had met with the aim of sabotaging the CSN authorities and seizing power.
Pepin imprisoned and the 3-D engaged in their attempt to take control of the CSN, only remains Raymond Parent, the general secretary.
Dalpé had accused Pepin “of having chosen the oasis of the prison of Orsainville, at the expense of the taxpayers”. The CSN needs a sweep, he said. But Parent organizes the response. On May 19, he launched an appeal: “Union activists! I have no doubt that the CSN will emerge stronger from this crisis. From his cell, Pepin wrote the next day to Parent: “I know that the task is great. You are the only one to bear the blow. »
The call for solidarity is heard. On May 20, the Radio-Canada journalists’ union broadcast a press release at 6:33 p.m. on the Telbec network: “We maintain our full support for President Pepin […] and to the Secretary General Parent, who in our view alone assumes the legitimacy of the executive. Hundreds of unions would react in the same way.
Having appealed, the presidents are released from prison on May 28. Arriving at the Holiday Inn, Pepin said to Parent: “Come, Raymond, we have work to do! A few hours later, in a crowded room, the president announced that he had given the three felon leaders a formal notice demanding their resignation. The next day, a newspaper headline read: “Sweeping at the CSN: Pepin wields the broom!” »
Having failed in their attempt to take over the CSN, the 3-Ds changed their strategy: they were to create a new trade union body, the CSD.The Journal of Debates at the time testifies to the active support of the Liberals in this operation.
But fate sometimes takes cruel paths. Raymond Parent, who had made no friends in the negotiations with the permanent union, will be beaten at the June convention. Shortly before his death six years ago, he confided to me: “I am proud of what I did in 1972…” He was right to be proud of it: he had literally saved the CSN !
In a seven-word decision, the Supreme Court in January 1973 refused to hear the presidents’ appeal. They then had to return to prison for a period of three months and then spend the weekends there, until September. They had not enjoyed any preferential treatment.