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A coalition of workers, housing advocates, and other activists demonstrated in front of the Minister of Labour's office downtown Montreal to denounce Quebec's Bill 89. If it passes, the bill would grant the government sweeping powers to suspend strikes and impose binding arbitration at bargaining tables.
The demonstration was organized by the Committee for Action in Solidarity with Construction in Quebec (CASCQ), which brings together construction workers from various unions as well as organizers from housing and community groups.
"[Bill 89] attacks the unions' balance of power. The bosses don't necessarily need a lockout to protect their interests," says Renaud Simard, CASCQ organizer.
"But for the workers, the strike is their tool for enforcing their rights and improving their working conditions. So it's an attack on the working class. It's an attack on workers."
Bill 89's stated goal is to prevent "disproportionat[e]" impacts on "social, economic or environmental security," but this concept is not defined in the language of the bill. This means the law could be applied widely, at the discretion of the provincial government.
For Simard, the proposed bill is reminiscent of measures once taken by the Duplessis government to crush labour organizing during the Grande Noirceur (Great Darkness):
"There's no equivalent to this, with the exception of Maurice Duplessis in the '50s, when he gave himself the right to break strikes if, for example, there were communist organizations. He never defined what was communist, so everyone was affected. That's somewhat equivalent."
Simard underscored the need for a strong reaction from the labour movement:
"An excellent message was put out by SCFP 301, the blue-collar workers of the City of Montreal, which was to go and say: This is an attack. We need to mobilize as quickly as possible and open the door to civil disobedience as quickly as possible. I totally agree with that position. It's a fundamental attack on union power, and there have been the major mobilizations for lesser changes to the Labour Code."
Around 40 picketing workers from the nearby Fairmont Le Reine Elizabeth hotel converged with the CASCQ demonstrators towards the beginning of the event. More than 600 workers at the hotel have been locked out of their workplace for more than three months.
Another construction worker, Andrea, addressed the crowd and called on workers to work together to combat such affronts to workers' rights: "The only remedy to this violent attack is inter-union and inter-industry solidarity. It really takes a working-class alliance. We can't be denied the right to strike!"
Members of the STTAL–CSN, Canada's first and only union of Amazon workers were also in attendance.
"We've gathered here because there's an anti-union movement. The attack on Amazon's union is part of that. But we see the continuity of that in PL89. We see an attempt to disarm the working class," said STTAL–CSN President Félix Trudeau.
Éric Forget, a construction worker with the Association des manoeuvres inter-provinciaux, believes that rank-and-file workers must push their unions to take political action against Bill 89:
"If the unions don't want to get on board, we'll get them on board. Look at the Amazon campaign: it's the perfect example of people on the ground taking control, getting involved, making the fight their own, and forcing the unions to get on board," he told The North Star.