Technological Strikebreaking: A Case Study of Quebec’s Anti-Scab Legislation

Abstract

The right to strike has been constitutionally protected in Canada since 2015. In other jurisdictions where the right to strike is explicitly recognized in the constitution, protection against strikebreaking is recognized as part of that right. Only two Canadian provinces restrict the use of replacement workers during a strike or a lockout. Quebec’s Labour Code has provisions that prohibit the use of replacement workers at the employer’s establishment. Quebec arbitrators, courts, and boards have interpreted this ill-defined concept as a strictly physical location of production, while ignoring technological advances that make remote work possible. This paper examines how the restrictive interpretation of establishment allows a form of strikebreaking that the Spanish Constitutional Court has described as “technological strikebreaking” (esquirolaje technologico), while also allowing the use of technology already at the employer’s disposal to circumvent restrictions on replacement workers even when such technology is not routinely used. The impact of technology on strikebreaking is examined through two case studies: the successive lockouts at the Journal de Québec and the Journal de Montréal. In both cases, external contributors provided the newspapers with content electronically, thus allowing uninterrupted publication. Using Katz, Kochan and Colvil’s three-tier model of collective bargaining, this paper looks at how technological strikebreaking disrupts not only the balance of bargaining power but also bargaining strategy, and how, in the case of the Journal de Montréal, it led to devastating bargaining outcomes. Though the lockouts led to a call for legislative reform in 2011, legislative change is not necessary to align existing provisions with the goal of shortening labour disputes.

La protección del derecho de huelga en el ordenamiento jurídico peruano. El caso del esquirolaje tecnológico

“…Si bien en Perú aún no se han producido casos de esquirolaje tecnológico, sí han ocurrido en países como Canadá, en el ámbito del sector de los medios de prensa, y España, en el ámbito del sector audiovisual. Éstos han sido abordados por la jurisprudencia y la respuesta no necesariamente se ha inclinado en favor de la huelga (Andrea Talarico, 2021;Carmen Grau, 2018;Beatriz Sánchez-Girón, 2021). Lo cierto es que no existe regulación normativa específica sobre el esquirolaje tecnológico a nivel de la Unión Europea, Estados Unidos 13 o Latinoamérica.…”

“…Lo cierto es que no existe regulación normativa específica sobre el esquirolaje tecnológico a nivel de la Unión Europea, Estados Unidos 13 o Latinoamérica. En todos esos ámbitos -jurisprudencial o doctrinalmente-se ha planteado que -sin necesidad de un cambio legislativo-(Andrea Talarico, 2021), se lo puede abordar a partir de la prohibición general de esquirolaje, 14 desde una visión progresiva de los derechos fundamentales, una interpretación favorable a la más amplia extensión de los derechos sindicales (Andrea Talarico, 2021;Anna Rota, 2018) y a la luz de la función que cumple la huelga en las relaciones laborales (Margarita Miñarro, 2018).…”