At the end of a sometimes confused, sometimes tense virtual assembly, the members of the Union of Quebec writers (UNEQ) rejected on Wednesday evening their union’s proposal to impose a contribution on all authors. However, they gave their approval to the sale of the House of Writers, but by a very slim majority.
It was not until shortly after 10 p.m., after nearly five hours of debate, that the authors present were finally able to begin voting on the first resolution, which dealt with the thorny issue of union dues, and which caused many of ink in the last few months. The electronic vote was marked by several failures, sowing confusion. On a few occasions, members even asked to adjourn the meeting, which dragged on, which caused tensions to flare up.
The results were finally known at the very end of the evening. The UNEQ project, which wanted to collect contributions for all publishing contracts in Quebec, was rejected by nearly 56% of voters.
A historically high number of members spoke during this meeting. At the opening, they were about 550 to be online. As the evening progressed, however, several left the meeting, which ended shortly before midnight.
In addition, the authors present also had to decide on the fate of the Maison des Ecrivains. Ultimately, 189 participants accepted that UNEQ liquidate its historic headquarters, against 175 who opposed it. A few members complained that they were unable to vote due to a technical problem, questioning the legitimacy of the process. The house will not, however, be officially on the market before September 2024. The syndicate has given itself 18 months to find a new buyer who undertakes to keep a literary vocation for this place.
The end of a long saga?
Remember that this extraordinary general meeting was made necessary after the UNEQ reversed its choice to impose a contribution of 2.5% on the income of its members, and 5% on its non-members. This decision, taken at a first general meeting in June, had aroused ire in the literary world. Many criticized the UNEQ for having acted on the sly, when barely 46 people had taken part in the vote, well below the 1,600 members that the UNEQ had at the time.
In the midst of the turmoil, the UNEQ had backtracked at the end of December, because it turned out that the vote on the dues did not even appear in the agenda that the members had received beforehand.
Despite its mea culpa, the union was not at the end of its troubles. In January, he again found himself in the hot seat, this time for the unilateral decision of his board of directors to sell his historic headquarters, the Maison des écrivains. The UNEQ maintained that the sale of the house was necessary, due to the increase in maintenance costs, in particular. But former UNEQ administrators and several well-known authors were sorry, expressing their attachment to this ancestral building in the Saint-Louis square, which serves not only as UNEQ’s head office, but also as a place for promotion of literature.
Faced with pressure, the UNEQ had made a U-turn, accepting that the future of the House of Writers be put to a vote at the extraordinary general meeting. But both on the issue of the sale of its head office and that of membership fees, UNEQ had not fundamentally changed its position.
She still proposed Wednesday to its members to divest from the House of Writers. However, the syndicate undertook to respect a moratorium of one and a half years before starting the sale process. Time to find a new buyer who is committed to pursuing the establishment’s literary mission.
With regard to union dues, UNEQ has set up a committee to set the amounts of future dues. But after deliberations, the proposal remained the same as what had been adopted in June: 2.5% for members and 5% for non-members.
Both the resolution on the sale of the house and that on the imposition of dues were justified by the UNEQ by the recent reform of the status of the artist. The new law notably mandates the union to negotiate minimum conditions for authors vis-à-vis publishers’ associations. A real revolution in the world of publishing. However, to assume its new mission, the UNEQ said it needed new income, hence the desire to sell the house and collect contributions.