Labour relations in Quebec will head towards a “period of turbulence” thanks to a plan for a province-wide municipal reform unveiled by Quebec Municipal Affairs Minister Louis Harel, observers predict.
Despite mounting opposition, the Quebec government intends to sharply reduce the number of cities and towns in the province.
Besides intending to give itself the power to decree mergers, the Quebec government will shortly be introducing legislation that will govern labour relations for the next four years to facilitate the task of integrating employees from different municipalities.
The Parti Québécois government will adopt special legislation that will govern union certification, compelling unions to strike agreements between themselves to decide who will represent workers at the negotiating table.
If a deal is not struck within 30 days after a municipal merger has been decreed by the Quebec government, a labour commissioner will determine the outcome. Approximately 75 per cent of Quebec municipal employees are now represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“Where there is competition between unions, it will likely be put to a vote before union members” said Michel Grant, a professor of human resources at the University of Quebec in Montreal, who was consulted by the province on the municipal reform plan.
The special legislation also calls for binding arbitration in the event of municipal mergers affecting workers subject to different labour contracts — a move that has infuriated unions across the province.
This is because existing collective agreements will expire (at the latest) one year after the creation of a new municipality, with the right to strike suspended during the transition period.
If a new agreement cannot be hammered out between the municipality and the union, the matter will go before an arbitrator who will average out provisions for wages, working hours, pensions and vacations.
“While we have no objections over the accreditation process, we are in no way satisfied with the intrusion of an arbitrator to decide the content of a collective agreement,” said Claude Hétu, the assistant director and head of the municipal sector for the Quebec division of CUPE. “That is attacking the fundamental right to free negotiation, and we will mobilize our members to make the government change its mind.”
Hétu would not say if the union would go so far as to strike on the matter nor would he eliminate it as an option.
It would, however, be in the interest of both municipalities and unions to reach an agreement, said Grant. “Unions, not surprisingly, do not want negotiations to be settled by an arbitrator but neither do the municipalities. The municipalities are very unhappy with the arbitration process because they feel arbitrators have tended to side with unions.”
Dealing with disgruntled workforces may become a harsh new reality for many municipalities, warned Jacques Deslauriers, the town manager of Beaconsfield, a Montreal suburb. Unions who negotiated in good faith and surrendered certain benefits in order to obtain other advantages will “not be very happy” to see them disappear in an effort to harmonize new working conditions.
As it stands, Quebec municipal employees earn on average almost 25 per cent more than private- and public-sector employees, added Grant, who sits on the board of directors at the Institute of Quebec Statistics, a provincial body that publishes an annual report on public-sector wages.
In a bid to achieve economies of scale, the government plans to replace current urban communities with three wider-ranging metropolitan communities in Montreal, Quebec City and Hull. Quebec, with a population of seven million, has 1,306 municipalities, 85 per cent of which have fewer than 5,000 residents, compared to 537 municipalities in Ontario, which has a population of 11.5 million.
The provincial government will decide which municipalities have to merge after newly established advisory committees submit recommendations this September. The government’s first priority, though, will be to create a new and bigger regional body called the Montreal Metropolitan Community that will envelop 107 municipalities and be fully operational by next January.
The tight deadlines the provincial government has imposed on all of the players is not helping matters, said Deslauriers. The province-wide municipal reform should be something that is well-planned and not rushed into, not in the least because of the enormous complexities involved in collective agreements, said Deslauriers.
“In every town you have at least two union contracts, one for the blue collars, the other for the white,” said Deslauriers, when asked about the challenges facing municipalities. “Then you have the fire departments, the libraries and the list goes on and on. Can you imagine trying to harmonize those working conditions. It’s going to take a long, long time. If it goes to the negotiation process, it’s going to take years. And the unions are certainly not going to give in.”
All of which does not seem to bode well for labour relations in Quebec. Or as Grant put it, “It’s going to be so complicated that there will undoubtedly be a period of turbulence.”
Luis Millan is a freelance writer based in Montreal.
Despite mounting opposition, the Quebec government intends to sharply reduce the number of cities and towns in the province.
Besides intending to give itself the power to decree mergers, the Quebec government will shortly be introducing legislation that will govern labour relations for the next four years to facilitate the task of integrating employees from different municipalities.
The Parti Québécois government will adopt special legislation that will govern union certification, compelling unions to strike agreements between themselves to decide who will represent workers at the negotiating table.
If a deal is not struck within 30 days after a municipal merger has been decreed by the Quebec government, a labour commissioner will determine the outcome. Approximately 75 per cent of Quebec municipal employees are now represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“Where there is competition between unions, it will likely be put to a vote before union members” said Michel Grant, a professor of human resources at the University of Quebec in Montreal, who was consulted by the province on the municipal reform plan.
The special legislation also calls for binding arbitration in the event of municipal mergers affecting workers subject to different labour contracts — a move that has infuriated unions across the province.
This is because existing collective agreements will expire (at the latest) one year after the creation of a new municipality, with the right to strike suspended during the transition period.
If a new agreement cannot be hammered out between the municipality and the union, the matter will go before an arbitrator who will average out provisions for wages, working hours, pensions and vacations.
“While we have no objections over the accreditation process, we are in no way satisfied with the intrusion of an arbitrator to decide the content of a collective agreement,” said Claude Hétu, the assistant director and head of the municipal sector for the Quebec division of CUPE. “That is attacking the fundamental right to free negotiation, and we will mobilize our members to make the government change its mind.”
Hétu would not say if the union would go so far as to strike on the matter nor would he eliminate it as an option.
It would, however, be in the interest of both municipalities and unions to reach an agreement, said Grant. “Unions, not surprisingly, do not want negotiations to be settled by an arbitrator but neither do the municipalities. The municipalities are very unhappy with the arbitration process because they feel arbitrators have tended to side with unions.”
Dealing with disgruntled workforces may become a harsh new reality for many municipalities, warned Jacques Deslauriers, the town manager of Beaconsfield, a Montreal suburb. Unions who negotiated in good faith and surrendered certain benefits in order to obtain other advantages will “not be very happy” to see them disappear in an effort to harmonize new working conditions.
As it stands, Quebec municipal employees earn on average almost 25 per cent more than private- and public-sector employees, added Grant, who sits on the board of directors at the Institute of Quebec Statistics, a provincial body that publishes an annual report on public-sector wages.
In a bid to achieve economies of scale, the government plans to replace current urban communities with three wider-ranging metropolitan communities in Montreal, Quebec City and Hull. Quebec, with a population of seven million, has 1,306 municipalities, 85 per cent of which have fewer than 5,000 residents, compared to 537 municipalities in Ontario, which has a population of 11.5 million.
The provincial government will decide which municipalities have to merge after newly established advisory committees submit recommendations this September. The government’s first priority, though, will be to create a new and bigger regional body called the Montreal Metropolitan Community that will envelop 107 municipalities and be fully operational by next January.
The tight deadlines the provincial government has imposed on all of the players is not helping matters, said Deslauriers. The province-wide municipal reform should be something that is well-planned and not rushed into, not in the least because of the enormous complexities involved in collective agreements, said Deslauriers.
“In every town you have at least two union contracts, one for the blue collars, the other for the white,” said Deslauriers, when asked about the challenges facing municipalities. “Then you have the fire departments, the libraries and the list goes on and on. Can you imagine trying to harmonize those working conditions. It’s going to take a long, long time. If it goes to the negotiation process, it’s going to take years. And the unions are certainly not going to give in.”
All of which does not seem to bode well for labour relations in Quebec. Or as Grant put it, “It’s going to be so complicated that there will undoubtedly be a period of turbulence.”
Luis Millan is a freelance writer based in Montreal.
