This text is part of the special Syndicalism booklet
The atypical employment rate in Quebec in 2021 represents just over a third (35.1 %) of total employment, according to the Quebec Institute of Statistics. The trade unions are interested in this large portion of workers, but there is still a long way to go for them to be fully integrated into union actions.
“It is difficult to have an overall vision of trade union action in relation to atypical workers [un vaste groupe qui comprend notamment les travailleurs à temps partiel, temporaires, indépendants et d’agence] warns Martine D’Amours, a retired professor in the Department of Industrial Relations at Université Laval. But she observes that the leaderships of the unions have changed their posture in recent decades.
More inclusive national leaderships
The British researcher Edmund Heery, professor of labor relations at the University of Cardiff, described in 2009 four possible trade union strategies in relation to atypical workers: exclusion (seen as not very legitimate, we seek to exclude them), subordination (their interests are considered secondary and their rights are inferior), inclusion (their interests being considered equivalent, equal treatment is favored) and engagement (they can claim different treatment).
“Since the 1970s, we have moved in Quebec from a defensive strategy, corresponding to the first two positions, to an inclusion and consideration of their realities falling within the last two,” observes Martine D’Amours.
At the national level, the trade union centers therefore demonstrate an increased sensitivity to atypical work.me Of Loves.
The Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ) has made many efforts to support agricultural workers. The Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ) has invested a lot of energy in groups such as home childcare providers, who have an autonomous status, continues the professor. “There have also been union convention resolutions recommending that their members not disparate treatment based on employment status,” she notes.
Local disparities
However, collective agreements are most often negotiated at the local level, with the employers. “In general, we observe that income gaps (between men and women, part-time and full-time, temporary and permanent, etc.) are narrower in unionized environments than in non-unionized environments, because reducing inequalities makes part of the DNA of the unions”, specifies the professor.
But the latter must make compromises according to the balance of power with the employer. “It cannot be denied that disparities exist between atypical and typical workers,” she notes. They may relate to seniority, access to leave, pension plans or group insurance.
Regarding wages, “the Labor Standards Act has prohibited since 2019 disparity according to employment status, including for agency employees”, indicates Ms.me D’Amours, who looks forward to watching its impact on future collective agreements.
The professor also notes that the consideration of atypical workers varies according to the sectors. “In those where they are very numerous, their interests are taken into account more. Disparities in treatment, for example, have been greatly reduced in the health sector. Conversely, she notes significant differences according to employment status in certain manufacturing sectors and private services, where the atypical are less represented.
Migrant workers at the margins
“The relationship of trade unions with the migration issue has always been ambivalent in history,” says Sid Ahmed Soussi, professor in the Department of Sociology at UQAM, whose research work focuses on temporary migrant workers (TMT) and union action.
In the United States, migrant workers “are usually looked down upon by their native or resident colleagues for all sorts of reasons, in particular the fact that they accept low wages”, estimates the professor. He perceives many similarities in Canada, especially since the presence of migrant labor has become very important today in most sectors of activity.
“The use of TMTs in Canada is growing all the more as the current programs have some of the highest return rates in the world, close to 98%! observes the expert.
Added to this is the reduced access of migrant workers to unionisation, due in particular to the discriminatory restrictions of Law 8 (concerning seasonal agricultural workers) and a series of legal and administrative measures which regulate working conditions and residence of these workers, not to mention an already very limited trade union presence in the private sector.
His recent work shows that around 40% of the workforce in the food processing sector, for example, is made up of low-status workers (including asylum seekers) employed by temporary placement agencies.
Sid Ahmed Soussi was able to observe the consequences of this reduced access of migrant workers to unionization on the defense of their wage rights. In non-unionized sectors (services, warehouses and the platform economy), most of the workforce is of migrant origin and earns the minimum wage.
“In this respect, a recent survey shows that demands for an increase in the minimum wage come up against opposition not only from employers, but also from opposition within the ranks of the trade unions themselves,” explains Mr. Soussi. An enormous work of education and solidarity with the temporary and local migrant workforce remains to be undertaken in the trade union centers today. »