QUEBEC – These are messy times in Quebec, where the provincial government is involved in a battle against powerful unions that have played a seminal role in the history of the province.
Reports of union-related intimidation multiplied Tuesday amid a legislative tug of war between the Quebec government and the construction unions it is working to weaken.
The fight is getting dirty – literally.
One backbencher with the governing Liberals reported having feces smeared outside his office; he said a colleague had also had her workplace vandalized.
That announcement came a day after the provincial labour minister said someone left an anonymous phone call threatening to break “both her legs.”
Construction sites were idle in Quebec for a second straight day as workers staged more protests Tuesday against government legislation aimed at cracking down on union powers.
Guy Ouellette, chairman of a legislative committee studying the bill, told fellow parliamentarians that someone had feces smeared outside his riding office near Montreal overnight.
Once a prominent organized-crime investigator, Ouellette drew parallels with his previous life fighting criminal biker gangs.
He shared the anecdote during an exchange with a witness who – while testifying on behalf of a business group – spoke of workplace intimidation.
“This is an organizational tactic,” the Liberal MNA interjected.
“It’s the tactic organized crime uses to keep people worried – with acts of intimidation. But from the moment people make themselves respected, speak out, identify the culprits, I will tell you that’s the best protection.”
A witness also told the committee the previous day that a female construction worker had recently been beaten with kicks from steel-toed boots.
The allegations touch on a small – but significant -fraction of Quebec’s labour movement.
The Quebec government is trying to pass legislation that would affect about 155,000 workers, the largest share coming from the biggest union in the province: the Quebec Federation of Labour.
The government’s Bill 33 would limit the power of unions to pick which workers get assigned to job sites.
The debate has triggered a torrent of anecdotes about iron-fisted control of construction sites by union officials. One witness told the Quebec City committee that employers feel powerless to stop it.
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That dynamic was on full display Tuesday.
In some cases, groups of union members made early-morning visits to various construction sites in downtown Montreal to urge fellow workers to leave the premises.
With crews walking off the job, work on major projects such as Montreal’s two superhospitals and the city’s new entertainment district were paralyzed.
Some workers clearly weren’t happy with having to leave. One worker cursed as he angrily tossed his tools into his truck.
At a smaller site in downtown Montreal, one veteran construction worker shrugged when asked which union was behind the visit.
“We’re not closing – they shut us down,” the irritated worker said, asking he not be filmed or recorded. “A father has the right to work, but they shut us down.”
Labour Minister Lise Theriault stunned many people on Monday when she said someone had left an anonymous phone message threatening to break both her legs.
But Theriault has promised to push ahead with the changes.
The legislature unanimously adopted a motion on Tuesday denouncing the intimidation tactics.
Meanwhile, Sherbrooke La Tribune said a reporter and a photographer for the newspaper were surrounded and threatened on Monday by union representatives who told them to leave a hydroelectric facility.
Unions hold a special place in the recent history of Quebec.
The province’s historically powerful unions became revered institutions as they defended worker rights during the occasionally brutal and often repressive Duplessis era.
Labour leaders became heroes, and the unions they represented became increasingly powerful and gained political clout during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s.
Even today, Quebec has the highest rate of unionization in the country in 2010 at 39.3 per cent, just ahead of Newfoundland. According to Statistics Canada, the national average is 31.5 per cent.
But by the 1970s, there was an attempt to push back against thuggery commonly employed on construction sites.
Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, for instance, was notoriously hit with cost overruns as workers ran up the tab through a range of practices – like smashing up newly built installations to start all over again.
The Cliche commission of the mid-1970s conducted an investigation into the province’s construction industry and found widespread violence and intimidation among unions.
The commission found there were clear instances of violence, sabotage, walkouts and blackmail. It also helped two young lawyers propel to stardom: Brian Mulroney and Lucien Bouchard.
The labour minister at the time said this week’s events bring back bad old memories.
Jean Cournoyer said current events are the kind of thing that inspired the Bourassa government of the day to bring in the Cliche commission.
“We’re living through – not quite the same – but a similar type of violence to what we had when we created the Cliche commission,” Cournoyer told RDI, Radio-Canada’s all-news channel.
“The Cliche commission said, ‘Let’s abolish these placement bodies.'” Cournoyer said he never got to do it because he lost his seat in the 1976 provincial election.
“Madame Theriault seems to want to go there. I wanted to go there – but I never made it.”
The pressure on work sites notwithstanding, the government has faced little political opposition to its effort.
In fact, messages of support for the government move were even splashed on the Facebook page of QFL-Construction – the biggest union affected by the legislation.
And there was anger directed at the union.
One commenter blasted the workers for slowing down the rebuilding of a school after a fire in Lachute, Que., saying the delays are forcing students to attend school at night.
Another commenter, a construction worker, said: “The money we’re losing this week – nobody at the union is going to give it back to us.”
Union leaders say they did not order the walkouts, insisting they are spontaneous acts of frustration by workers who are angry at the government.
But one business leader told the legislative committee that workplace intimidation is a reality of life.
The director of a federation that represents chambers of commerce said his members are sometimes forced to hire do-nothing workers – but don’t say anything to avoid causing trouble.
“There’s a culture of, ‘I don’t want to make waves because it will create problems.’… Some entrepreneurs have told us about intimidation,” said federation director Jean-Guy Cote.
“You know, our members buy peace sometimes. Sometimes, they literally pay for peace with the union. They accept the situation – they accept to take on useless employees who don’t do anything, they accept it because it costs less money to buy peace than to handle the problems.
“But that – that has an impact on Quebec’s economy in the long run. In the long run, that cost of buying peace has an impact.”
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