Union activists invade Ministry of Labour against PL89

Bureaucrats at the Ministry of Labour in Montreal couldn't dine in peace yesterday. Around a hundred demonstrators from several unions occupied the building for around 40 minutes to denounce Bill 89, which would severely restrict the right to strike, despite it being protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

At about 12:15 p.m., around a hundred demonstrators arrived at 500 René-Lévesque Boulevard. Around thirty went up to the offices of the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet, while the others occupied the lobby.

Police quickly evicted those on the seventh floor, but it took over 20 minutes to obtain the eviction notice needed to force the trade unionists to leave under threat of arrest.

During the speeches, one of the CSN organizers on site commented that Minister Boulet “likes to spend a lot of time in the Chambers of Commerce. Even on May 1st [the international day of struggle for workers' rights], he's at the Chamber of Commerce.”

“He's a friend of employers,” he concluded.

A bill for bosses

Unions are sharply critical of Bill 89, designed with employers in mind and without taking workers' demands into account. The bill, ironically named “An Act to give greater consideration to the needs of the population in the event of a strike or a lock-out”, seems more in keeping with the needs of business and the oligarchy.

It would allow the Minister to impose the continuation of services in any strike deemed to have too great an impact on the population, without specifying what this means. It could also force the end of any strike causing “prejudice”, again without a clear definition.

Yet it is precisely the economic and social impact of strikes that gives workers leverage in negotiations. Companies already benefit from state support and control workers' livelihoods, which is to their advantage.

Bill 89 is supported by all employers' associations, including those with a history of lockouts. Conversely, all the unions are against the bill.

To add fuel to the fire, the announcement comes after a year marked by three major strikes broken by the federal government and the closure of Amazon warehouses in Quebec in response to unionization at one of them.