This text is part of the special section The 50 years of the CSD
A citizen sees and experiences many things in 50 years. So, imagine a central trade union! These organizations are not only privileged witnesses, but also important agents of change, or protective barriers to slow down major setbacks. The Central of Democratic Trade Unions (CSD) has held this role for half a century, always ready to go to the front to fight inequalities, and not just those that affect its members.
There has been no shortage of inequalities over the past few decades, some of which we did not want to see and which the COVID-19 pandemic has cruelly brought to light for more than two years, whether it is the fragilities of the system health or precariousness of various categories of workers. Added to this are so many other issues, which some would call peripheral or accessory, but which are nonetheless crucial, such as the voting system, taxation and trade agreements between Canada and the rest of the world. .
Involved with the CSD since 1999, Normand Pépin analyzes the trends that run through society and scrutinizes certain bills whose implications can sometimes be significant for the world of work or society in general. Under the magnifying glass of this research advisor, there are obvious signs of progress, but also many great unfulfilled ambitions that do not always allow Quebec to propel itself into the future.
The reform of the voting system constitutes in a way the emblematic example of a chimerical ideal, revived practically with each change of government to then disappear even before the erosion of power does its work. “The CAQ said it wanted to change things, and when I saw Bill 39 [pour un scrutin proportionnel et représentatif de l’électorat québécois], a significant amount of work, I was confident, admits Normand Pépin. Because no government had ever gone so far. »
He finally backed down, “while François Legault had promised that the 2018 election would be the last in the first-past-the-post mode”, underlines the adviser with regret.
If everyone should feel concerned by the distortions of the electoral system, the same is true for the unions. “We end up with an elected government with 37% of the votes, 60% of the deputies… and which has 100% power. However, the laws are made for all citizens. The majority can then find themselves faced with projects that they do not want. Many voters whose MP finds himself in the opposition feel that their vote is lost, which would no longer have been the case with regional representation: each vote would end up counting. »
Vote for Tax Fairness
Contracts are like laws: the devil often hides in the details, and the most skilful know how to read between these lines. So much so that our governments lose billions of dollars each year in tax evasion (illegal activity seeking to hide funds to pay less tax), as well as in avoidance (tax reduction operation by taking maximum advantage of legal dispositions). Faced with such a shortfall, how can public services be adequately funded?
The most cynical will say that it’s as simple as putting the toothpaste back in the tube… In the eyes of Normand Pépin, major changes for fairer taxation are possible, but will not only have to depend on the governments in place in Quebec and Ottawa. , but of a real consultation on an international scale.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also made a timid shift with an agreement signed by more than 130 countries since the 1er July 2021 on a minimum tax of 15% for businesses. “It’s a first step, but it’s not enough,” recognizes the one whose power station is part of the collective Échec aux paradis paradis.
Because over the decades, companies have succeeded in reducing their tax burdens and transferring them to taxpayers, especially those in the middle class. “We see it in the state budgets, deplores Normand Pépin. Taxation of companies is greatly reduced, while that of individuals continues to increase. Several studies have also shown this: when the level of corporate taxation is lowered, they do not tend to invest or create jobs; profits are instead returned to shareholders or as bonuses to managers. »
When trade is unimpeded
It is also often the same people who sing the praises of free trade, trade agreements and the thinning of borders, at least for goods. Issues that have always preoccupied the unions and the CSD, first and foremost. Their discourse and their apprehensions evolved in the face of these rather opaque negotiation processes in the 1980s and 1990s. Many consider that we see little change in this direction…
“There are goods that we cannot produce, recognizes Normand Pépin. But what comes with free trade are several problems: the protection of foreign investors who can sue states; the obligation to open public markets [qu’il s’agisse de livrer des trains ou des masques de protection] ; intellectual property when big pharmaceutical companies push to protect their patents for very long periods of time. »
These are all issues that the CSD raises with its 72,000 members or within the Quebec Network for Inclusive Globalization (formerly the Quebec Network on Continental Integration). Because these questions affect them not only as workers, but as citizens, knowing also that the inequalities suffered by one generation often affect the next. In this context, flattening the curve of inequalities becomes a necessity.