Die Neue Zeit
26th September 2010, 17:54
So much for Quebec Solidaire: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Anti+scab+needs+updating+newspaper+union/3560457/story.html
By KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette
Claudette Carbonneau, president of the Confederation des syndicats nationaux labour federation, representing 253 Journal de Montreal staffers locked out for 20 months in a bitter contract dispute, met yesterday with provincial Labour Minister Lise Theriault.
Carbonneau is asking the minister to amend Quebec's anti-scab law to take into account technological change, which allows replacement workers to do the work of people locked out without being in the office.
"We aren't asking for the moon," Carbonneau said, after addressing some of the locked-out employees who came to the National Assembly from Montreal.
She said the anti-scab law was written in 1977 when most work was done under one roof. "You were on the production line or you weren't," Carbonneau said.
At lockouts at its Quebec City and Montreal papers, owner Quebecor has been using reporters and photographers who never set foot in its newsroom.
The union representing Le Journal de Quebec employees won a Commission des relations du travail decision declaring these type of workers to be replacement workers, or scabs. But the ruling was overturned on appeal and appears headed to the Supreme Court of Canada for a final ruling.
"We don't want to wait seven or eight years," said Carbonneau, referring to the lengthy court procedures that often occur before the high court makes its ruling.
That is why she is asking Theriault to change the law.
"We think the National Assembly is there for the common good and the general interest," she said.
Amending the anti-scab law to take into account new technology would "re-establish a balance between the parties," she said, noting that because Quebecor papers can continue to operate, even with a lockout, the company has been unwilling to negotiate.
Parti Quebecois MNA Guy Leclair, from the Beauharnois riding, presented a petition in the assembly, in support of the change in the anti-scab law, and Amir Khadir, sole sitting member of Quebec solidaire, said he supports such a change.
Khadir noted that the original anti-scab law was proposed to end violence during labour-management disputes. Putting more than 250 workers on the street for 20 months is a form of violence, he added, because they are "losing their jobs, their pensions, their future."
Quebecor has told the union that because of technology change, most of them would be offered severance packages, rather than a return to work, once the dispute ends.
By KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette
Claudette Carbonneau, president of the Confederation des syndicats nationaux labour federation, representing 253 Journal de Montreal staffers locked out for 20 months in a bitter contract dispute, met yesterday with provincial Labour Minister Lise Theriault.
Carbonneau is asking the minister to amend Quebec's anti-scab law to take into account technological change, which allows replacement workers to do the work of people locked out without being in the office.
"We aren't asking for the moon," Carbonneau said, after addressing some of the locked-out employees who came to the National Assembly from Montreal.
She said the anti-scab law was written in 1977 when most work was done under one roof. "You were on the production line or you weren't," Carbonneau said.
At lockouts at its Quebec City and Montreal papers, owner Quebecor has been using reporters and photographers who never set foot in its newsroom.
The union representing Le Journal de Quebec employees won a Commission des relations du travail decision declaring these type of workers to be replacement workers, or scabs. But the ruling was overturned on appeal and appears headed to the Supreme Court of Canada for a final ruling.
"We don't want to wait seven or eight years," said Carbonneau, referring to the lengthy court procedures that often occur before the high court makes its ruling.
That is why she is asking Theriault to change the law.
"We think the National Assembly is there for the common good and the general interest," she said.
Amending the anti-scab law to take into account new technology would "re-establish a balance between the parties," she said, noting that because Quebecor papers can continue to operate, even with a lockout, the company has been unwilling to negotiate.
Parti Quebecois MNA Guy Leclair, from the Beauharnois riding, presented a petition in the assembly, in support of the change in the anti-scab law, and Amir Khadir, sole sitting member of Quebec solidaire, said he supports such a change.
Khadir noted that the original anti-scab law was proposed to end violence during labour-management disputes. Putting more than 250 workers on the street for 20 months is a form of violence, he added, because they are "losing their jobs, their pensions, their future."
Quebecor has told the union that because of technology change, most of them would be offered severance packages, rather than a return to work, once the dispute ends.