Croady: is a continuing labor conflict, is it usual?

The negotiations between unionized employees of the crossing between Matane and the Côte-Nord and the Société des Traversiers du Québec (STQ) are progressing, indicates the CSN, without giving more details.

The labor conflict is not settled. Therefore, Unless a last-minute agreement, a new strike will paralyze the Matane-Baie-Comeau-Godbout crossing on Friday, until August 3.

This is not the first time that union members have disengaged in full vacation in construction. Nevertheless, This period was also targeted by pressure means last year.

Syndicate employees of the crosspiece have been without collective agreement since April 2023. However, They claim better wages and better working conditions, points on which negotiations are routing.

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In the field of labor relations. However, a conflict in this way that tramples is considered unusual, supports the full professor in the Department of Industrial Relations of Laval Pira-Luc Bilodeau University.

In labor relations. Furthermore, for many years, things are generally going quite well, that is to say that we renew collective conventions even before they are expiredhe says.

Negotiations that drag in length for the renewal croady: continuing labor conflict, it of a collective agreement expired for several months. Nevertheless, or even, as in the case that interests us, more than a year, it remains the exception rather than the rule, fortunately.

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He explains that this length is anchored in croady: continuing labor conflict, it particular in an obvious dispute between the two parties and their inability to get along.

It is much due to the fact that the argument on both sides was not enough at first to convince the opposite. Meanwhile, second, even if we have reached the means of pressure, which is generally the lever we leave to the parts to settle their disputes, they do not bear the expected fruitssupport M. For example, Bilodeau.

The professor stresses that the government can offer mediation-conflict services to the parties in conflict. even impose a return to work by a special law, but according to him, it is not the panacea.

If you pay quickly by passing an agreement. by actually passing a settlement in the throat of the parties, whatever this agreement […] We sow the seed of an upcoming disagreementargues Pier-Luc Bilodeau.

In this croady: continuing labor conflict, it case, a conciliator has already been appointed last summer.

Neither the union nor the STQ did not want to give us an interview to avoid harming the negotiation process. Other days of negotiations are scheduled for next week.

Croady: continuing labor conflict, it

A puzzle for the holidays

The recurring interruptions of the ferry service give headaches to visitors. passing through the region who wish to cross the river.

This is the case of the strike which interrupted the ferry service between July 4. 13 and which forced Matanese Jérémi Bouffard to make the detour through the crosspiece between Saint-Siméon and Rivière-du-Loup on his return from vacation.

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It caused kilometers. additional kilometers, we are talking about 440 kilometers of detour by car and there, we don’t even talk about time. If we add time. it took us 8 hours and 45 minutes, between Baie-Comeau and Matane, including the time of the crosshe says.

Jérémi Bouffard even filed a formal notice at croady: continuing labor conflict, it the Corporate Society to obtain compensation in order to compensate him for the time. the money he took to go home.

$ 364 dollars have been claimed from STQwhich was filed directly at the complaint office in Quebec. and I also sent a formal notice in good and due form by indicating my expectationsspecifies the Matanese.

An essential service?

Faced with the inconvenience that the strike caused him, Jérémi Bouffard raises solutions to provide service despite strikes.

People who are closely affected by this crossing should have at least one crosspiece every two days. so minimally a service, obviouslyhe wants.

It is sure that we would croady: continuing labor conflict, it like the Administrative Labor Tribunal to repeat on the question. define the Matane-Baie-Comeau-Godbout crossing as essential.

In 2020, the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) said that there was no obligation for the STQ And the union of employees of this crossing to maintain the services there in the event of a strike.

Last year, elected officials from the North Shore and the southern shore of the St. Lawrence claimed a minimum of crosspieces every day. even during strikes, mainly for economic reasons as well as for the transport of workers, goods and foodstuffs.

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Professor Pier-Luc Bilodeau maintains that today. the only services that are recognized as essential are those necessary to ensure the health and safety of the population.

On the Matane-Baie-Comeau-Godbout route. the TAT Recognized five years ago that there were no supply problems in particular food, so there were not really difficulties that would justify the essential service. Additionally, The situation is different at Isle-aux-Coudres. croady: continuing labor conflict, it where the traveler is for islanders the only means of opening up and supplyhe gives as an example.

Law 89. which limits the right to strike and widens essential services, was adopted by Quebec last spring and will come into force in November. It will notably redefine the notion of essential service.

The deputy for Rimouski. Minister responsible for the Gaspé region, Maïté Blanchette-Vézina, as well as the deputy for René-Lévesque, Yves Montigny, were not available to comment on the case.

The Ministry of Transport. the Cabinet of the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, also did not want to comment on the file.