J'exprime d'abord ma gratitude la plus profonde à Guy Rocher, pour son aide précieuse, ses commentaires pertinents et nuancés et sa généreuse disponibilité, en dépit de ses nombreuses activités. Ceci a constitué pour moi un encouragement à poursuivre jusqu'au bout la tâche entreprise.Je remercie Paul Bernard pour ses suggestions utiles, ainsi que Céline SaintPierre, Jacques Boucher et les membres du Groupe de recherche ethnicité et société pour avoir accepté de se joindre au collectif, alors que la réalisation du projet était déjà relativement avancée.Ce livre n'aurait pu voir le jour sans la coopération de l'ensemble des collaboratrices et des collaborateurs. Qu'ils reçoivent ici l'expression de ma reconnaissance la plus chaleureuse.Je remercie par ailleurs Michel Arès, pour la révision linguistique du manuscrit, et Lina Jazra, pour l'aide apportée lors de la correction des premières épreuves.
L'auteur dégage les principaux traits de la nouvelle Loi des relations de travail dans l'industrie de la construction au Québec : il n'y aura qu'une seule négociation et une seule convention collective, au niveau régional ou provincial. La loi vise à assurer plus d'ordre et plus d'unité dans une industrie déchirée par de nombreuses tensions ; l'expérience des négociations de 1969, et bien davantage celle de 1970, ne sont guère encourageantes : jamais décret n'a soulevé autant de difficultés ; et les rivalités intersyndicales demeurent aussi profondes que jamais, surtout en matière de placement et de sécurité d'emploi. Cet article a été préparé en juin 1970 et février 1971.The formula and history of industry-wide bargaining in the Québec construction industry is a rare if not unique case in North America. LEGAL SYSTEM AND STATUSPrior to a new law enacted December 1968 — The Construction Industry Labour Relations Act, known as Bill 290 — labour relations in the construction industry had operated under two different laws, the Labour Code, which regulates the general system of certification and collective bargaining at the employer's level, and the Collective Agreement Decrees Act, which provides for the possibility of extending a privately bargained collective agreement to make it, by way of decree, mandatory to all employers and employees of an industry in a definite region. Since 1934, the construction industry in Québec had chosen to operate under this system of juridical extension. From the very beginning, an industry-wide bargaining system was set up juridical by the parties themselves. Fifteen decrees thus determined the conditions of work for all the general trades in as many different areas ; the bargaining for the respective agreements was conducted on an industry-wide basis at the regional level. A few highly specialized trades had provincial agreements and decrees. There were very few instances of certifications ; many of these were used as a protection or a weapon against a rival union, especially in the mechanical trades.Bill 290 has eliminated the double system and placed the construction labour relations under one single Act. At the same time, it purported to centralize even more fully the bargaining process, stating that there will be strictly one bargaining and one agreement by region (or for the whole province, if the parties involved so desired).To ensurecomplete industry-wide bargaining, the certification system was abolished and replaced by a new concept, that of representative associations. Two provincial labour bodies are thus designated in the Act itself, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (C.N.T.U.) and the Québec Federation of Labour (Q.F.L.) with respect to their own affiliates, respectively the national construction syndicates, which are preponderant in the various regions outside of Montréal, and locals of the international building trades unions, more heavily concentrated in the Montréal area and, on a province-wide basis, in some highly technical trades. On the employers' side,...
L'auteur évoque les principaux changements qu'ont connus les syndicats ouvriers au cours de leurs cent ans d'histoire, comment leurs objectifs, leurs structures, leurs membres et leurs méthodes d'action ont évolue au gré des périodes et de l'environnement social. Il s'interroge sur les caractéristiques actuelles du mouvement, sur le bien-fondé aujourd'hui des privilèges qui leur ont été accordés au cours des années et sur leur statut présent: sont-ils des organismes prives, publics ou semi-publics?The trade union movement in Canada has influenced and has been influenced by the Canadian society as a whole. From a movement, young and dynamic, with noble objectives and a minimal structure, trade unions have become highly sophisticated organizations, bureaucratie and self-reproducing.Four periods can be identified, corresponding tothe following approximate dates: 1. a period of illegality because of their activities in restraint of trade (1825-1875),2. a period of foundation-building (1875-1935),3. a period of growth and development, because of major legal privilèges (1935-1975), and4. a period of uncertainties (since 1975).Historical notesLegal context is of crucial importance in the history of trade unions in Canada. With the Trade Union Act of 1872, no union could be sued anymore for acting in restraint of trade. The Industrial Disputes Investigation Act of 1907 imposed a conciliatory intervention by a governmental third party in certain disputes before strike action could be resorted to. The major and definitive development came as a result of the adoption of the Wagner Act in the U.S.A., in 1935, and of P.C. 1003 in Canada in 1944. Legislation instituting collective bargaining in the public sector gave a second spring to the unions in the 1960s. Since the 1970s, most legislation regarding unions has been rather restrictive.Trade unions in Canada first developed on the British type or model, around 1825, among trades people, like typographers and shoemakers. Since 1850, some union locals were organized on the American model. All these first unions in Canada had a local or regional character. The first lasting efforts to bring together trade unions in Canada came with the foundation of the Trades and Labour Congress in 1883. Development was slow until the 1930s. Besides legislation, the major factor for unionization at that period was the establishment, in 1934, of the CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization, to become the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1938, in the U.S.A.), and the foundation of the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL), in Canada, in 1940. Growth and development was spectacular from 1940 to around 1956, when the Trades and Labour Congress and the Canadian Congress of Labour merged to form the present Canadian Labour Congress. Besides the unionization of public sector employees, the major event of the 1960s and the 1970s was the movement by Canadian locals of international unions to form separate unions, like the Canadian Paperworkers and the Canadian Automobile Workers. Aroun...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.