(The following article is from the May 16-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

Special to PV

While the struggle of Quebec's public sector unions is drawing considerable attention across Canada, other important labour developments are underway in the building trades. Collective agreements covering 150,000 Quebec construction industry workers expired on April 30. Although talks for a new contract began last October, union negotiators have run into the intransigence of employers' associations representing the various sectors of the industry, including residential, road building, and institutional-commercial. 

     An alliance has been formed, consisting of unions which represent around 80& of all workers in the Quebec construction industry. The alliance includes the Quebec Provincial Council of Construction Trades-International, CSD Building, the CSN-Construction, and the Union of Quebec Construction (SQC), to which are attached six local affiliates of the Quebec Federation of Labour.

     The spokespersons for the Alliance report that "to date, little progress has been made. The difference between union demands and employer positions is so great that discussions are very difficult."

     The wage offer from the employers does not even cover inflation, and maintains wage differentials for workers who perform the same tasks in the residential sector. Under the pretext of "economic hardship," the employers want to abolish the double-time overtime pay rate in the institutional-commercial sector, and to return to a working week of 50 hours at straight time on construction sites.

     Yet all indicators show that construction activity is on the upswing, so the workers feel they are entitled to better pay and improved working conditions. The unions are refusing to surrender, instead resorting to pressure tactics against the employers, and possibly strike action towards the end of June. Unfortunately, Quebec law prohibits any retroactive settlement in the construction industry.

     The union alliance acknowledges that a walkout would have serious consequences: delays in delivery of new houses; a slowdown in road work across Quebec making travel difficult for motorists; and a delay in Hydro-Quebec's La Romaine mega-site. But these disadvantages, the unions note, would be caused by aggressive business associations which seek to undermine the working conditions of construction workers.