|
|
|
|
||
|
QUEBEC LABOUR VOTES ON COMMON FRONT GENERAL STRIKE
(This article is from the Oct. 16-31, 1999 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
By Daniel Morel
As People's Voice goes to print on Oct. 13, hundreds of thousands of workers are meeting throughout Quebec to decide on strike action. This article by the editor of La nouvelle Forge looks at the background to this major struggle.
WINTER MAY BE around the corner as temperatures drop a little bit each day. But the situation on Quebec's labour front is heating up as we get closer to October 25th, the date chosen by unions to launch a major confrontation with the PQ government.
To fully describe the magnitude of what is presently going in Quebec, in just a few words, is not an easy matter. Every single public sector union member in Quebec is being asked to take part in this gigantic consultation process. Thousands of local unions are involved. By the end of the process, if the strike vote is positive, around 300,000 people could walk out.
The plan is to first hold a 24 hour walkout on Oct. 25. Then, on Nov. 18, if the government has still not made some major concessions at the different centralised bargaining tables, there will be an unlimited general strike covering all of the public sector.
All collective agreements of Quebec's public sector expired 18 months ago, and negotiations stalled, almost before they even began. Unions are demanding wage increases of more than 10% over three years, while the PQ government is sticking to its original and supposedly "final" offer of 1-2-2.
If the strike votes are positive, it will be the most important confrontation between governments and Quebec labour in more than 20 years. All major labour bodies (the QFL, the CNTU, and the CEQ) have joined forces under the umbrella of the "Common Front" of public sector unions. Despite many difficulties and various tensions, this very large labour coalition is still functioning and keeping to the plan for strike action announced in September. It is the first time since 1976 that such a "Common Front" has been formed.
By mid-October, it is still difficult to predict the result of these strike votes. The good news is that the top leadership of the unions, who have been heavily criticized by their members over the past few years for not doing their job, are this time truly committed to making a success out of these efforts. After many years that were characterised by numerous setbacks, forced by successive provincial governments, trade unionists are saying that today is the time to start turning the tide.
The unions have the support of the public. Surveys indicate more then 50% of the population agrees that public sector workers should receive significant wage increases. Still, everybody agrees that it will be a tough battle, one which has begun even before strike actions have started.
Restricted for the moment to the field of propaganda, this battle is none the less already very intense. The PQ has already stated on numerous occasions that it will not tolerate any type of strike action by the Common Front, and that it will not hesitate to use strong back-to-work legislation to break the unions.
Last summer, Quebec nurses were literally crushed by that government through very repressive measures. Their union, the FIIQ, is currently on the verge of bankruptcy. FIIQ's automatic union dues check off has been suspended by the government for the next 5 years or so. The PQ has also ruled that the different hospitals should no longer accept to pay for nurse's union leaves. Rank and file nurses must reimburse the government the equivalent of 46 days of their salaries.
Meanwhile, major divisions within the FIIQ, linked to sharp criticisms from the membership towards the union leadership over the way the strike was conducted, have also deeply weakened the union. FIIQ is presently not a part of the Common Front.
Most trade unionists here now agree that the nurses' strike was a major mistake; they should have waited to go out with everybody else. The failure of the strike proves the clear necessity to unite and fight back in a closely coordinated way.
The PQ is using the nurses' strike as an example of what will happen to all public sector workers if they also walk out. Unions are countering these threats by pointing to the fact that the government will not be able to repeat such measures because of the much larger size of the Common Front. Past common front experiences (1972 and 1976) ended each time with very important gains for the labour movement.
Meanwhile, the PQ government is escalating its attempts to divide working people and to weaken the unions' resolve, by playing on the question of tax cuts, saying there is money for "one or the other - better wages or tax cuts." This hides the fact that Quebec's present surplus is the result of years of cutbacks in the public sector.
While united and coordinated action was a main feature of Quebec labour in 1970's, it was absent during the 1980's and '90's, when top union leaders were more inclined to accept concessions than to wage hard battles. If you forget the necessity of fighting to preserve and improve the workers' situation, you also disregard calls for more unity, and you tend to get involved in all kinds of infighting. On the contrary, if you become convinced of the necessity of fighting back, you find ways to overcome divisive issues. At that point, workers' class unity becomes the most obvious strategy to promote, and this is exactly what is currently happening in Quebec.
(Daniel Morel is a member of the National Committee of the Parti Communiste du Quebec, and editor of the French monthly newspaper La nouvelle Forge.)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||
