There will be no more employees at the Association des libraires du Québec (ALQ) on June 14. Since the arrival of the new management, at the beginning of 2023, with its desire for restructuring, resignations, sick leave and job abolitions have multiplied – until the permanent offices found themselves empty.
Only Gabrielle Simard, from the board of directors and the Chicoutimi bookstore Les Bouquinistes, will then officially be at work, “until December 31, 2024”, to provide interim management, indicated Laurence Monet, vice-president of the board. of administration, in the name of the association.
On the employee side, since the management changed, occupied first on an interim basis by Alexandre Blanchette, then from April 18, 2023 in co-management with Jade Bergeron, there have been three resignations, one dismissal without notice, one contract not renewed, two dismissals by abolition of positions effective on June 13, and medical prescriptions for withdrawal from offices formulated to preserve the health of employees.
The half-dozen employees affected had at most 10, 12 and 16 years of seniority within the ALQ and, at least, five months to two years.
In a telephone interview at Dutythe co-director general, Alexandre Blanchette, indicated that the new management, since its arrival in April 2023, had the mission of implementing a general restructuring anchored on the new strategic planning.
The chairman of the board of directors, Éric Simard, owner of Librairie du Square, located on rue Saint-Denis, gave the same speech at the Duty.
The drafting of this plan is not finished. The duty was unable to view it.
Restructuring and team
Previously, Katherine Fafard was the director of the organization for ten years. She will have been at the ALQ for a total of 22 years. The duty interviewed the majority of ALQ employees and ex-employees who experienced the transition. All the comments collected report a radical change in corporate culture — both in the vision, in the way of working and in professional interactions — with the arrival of Alexandre Blanchette and Jade Bergeron.
Mr. Blanchette, for his part, spoke of “great resistance to changes on the part of the team”. The same terms were used by Mr. Simard.
Did the board of directors (BoD) see, to implement its new strategy, the need to make a clean sweep of the current permanence? ” Absolutely not ! » exclaimed the president. Has the Board followed up with the team since the appointment of the new directors? “No,” admits Mr. Simard. Is it possible that the CA found itself disconnected from the reality of permanence? Silence. Then “yes”.
The 2024-2025 forecasts were critical due to the capping and reduction of grants, as well as the considerable increase in operational costs and expenses related to the organization’s activities. Actions had to be taken to rectify the situation.
“The board of directors of the Quebec Booksellers Association takes the situation related to human resources very seriously,” the Duty the board of directors, through its vice-president, Laurence Monet, of Librairie Monet.
“A rigorous evaluation will be carried out by an independent external human resources consultant. »
In recent days, Mr. Blanchette has been on personal leave for an indefinite period. Jade Bergeron has been absent since April 30. “The co-director and the co-director [sont] currently on withdrawal for personal reasons,” confirmed Laurence Monet.
Money matters
An email recently sent by the Board to members of the ALQ describes the start of an important transition. “We will not hide from you that the last few months have been demanding and that those to come will be just as demanding. »
This missive was sent on May 10, the day after the announcement to two employees of their dismissal for job abolition. The new positions will offer less generous working conditions, as specified by the president of the CA.
The main challenge of the ALQ, according to the message, is economic. “The ALQ saw the freezing of subsidies and the abolition of dedicated programs as well as the capping of contributions and independent income. »
“If we add to this the general increase in costs, your organization finds itself with a significant deficit for the budget year which is ending. » “If no changes are implemented, the year 2024-2025 suggests a critical budgetary situation. »
The financial statements of the ALQ 2021-2022 annual report were balanced. Among the employees who gave testimony to the Duty, more than one was responsible for his sector budget. No one understands how the association can so suddenly find itself in a critical deficit.
Between 2019 and 2023, according to the information we obtained, the ALQ’s budget increased from $500,000 to $2,000,000, coming mainly from public money.
Asked about the exact sources of this deficit, Alexandre Blanchette was unable to answer. The CA did not provide further details.
“The 2024-2025 forecasts were critical due to the capping and reduction of subsidies, as well as the considerable increase in operational costs and expenses linked to the activities of the organization,” responded Laurence Monet. Actions had to be taken to rectify the situation. »
Control groups
The president of the ALQ Board of Directors specified that after surveying members and conducting focus groups, the association decided to leave the training component for booksellers aside to devote itself more to a more specialized service.
“If a bookseller has a commercial problem, for example, we want to be able to provide specific advice and support,” said Éric Simard.
“Tsé, if a member of the board had sat down to tell me “Listen, we are going to take a commercial turn. We, the literacy and then training mission of the ALQ, no longer interest us, we want to find more cash for the future – even if we are a non-profit organization… –, then we give ourselves a year to implement our plan”, I would have said “OK, I’ll finish my files and I’m leaving”,” confided a former employee, who requested anonymity for fear of professional reprisals.
Since 1969, the ALQ has contributed to the professional development of bookstores and their influence. It manages the well-known Quebec Booksellers Prize. For example, for several years it has been offering “literary prescriptions”, these reading suggestions made by public figures and booksellers.
She organizes inter-professional meetings in the book sector and makes political representations to governments to promote the profession and its financing. Which of these activities can be maintained without a team to manage them?
Some 140 independent bookstores are members of the ALQ, out of more or less 175 in Quebec. They pay, depending on their income, between $400 and $3,000 to be part of the association.
The board of directors is also made up of Maximilien Bouchard, of Librairie Marie-Laura, Éléna Laliberté, of Librairie La Liberté, and Luc Lavoie, of Librairie Ste-Thérèse.
The Annual General Meeting of the ALQ will be held on June 9. For the first time in at least a decade, no ALQ employee, even the two who will see their positions abolished on June 13, was invited.