Unions, supporters rally in Montreal to denounce Quebec government policies | CBC News

Members of Quebec’s major unions and community groups were out in full force in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon to protest against François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government.

The demonstrators are critical of the government over cuts to public services, the underfunding of social programs and what is being described by many as a shift towards the political right and authoritarianism.

“Our message is clear,” said Magali Picard, president of Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), the province’s largest labour federation ahead of the march.

“We want the government to understand that the middle class, workers, community groups, the population need a government that listens, that works with its people.”

Picard called on the government to abandon its law reforming doctors’ compensation, its proposed Quebec constitution, and, above all, legislation overhauling union governance.

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One family medicine group in the city’s Ahuntsic neighbourhood says it’s lost nine physicians because of Bill 2, Quebec’s controversial law that ties a part of doctors’ pay to performance indicators. As remaining staff try to absorb the patients of those doctors, they say the new law will make care more difficult.

The rally, involving nine major unions across the province, as well as five umbrella groups representing some 4,500 community organizations, took place the day before Law 14 — also known as Bill 89 — comes into effect.

‘Enough is enough,’ says union leader

The legislation will allow the government to intervene and force striking public sector workers into arbitration and provide minimum services for the public.

Labour Minister Jean Boulet attempted unsuccessfully to speed up its implementation during Montreal’s transit strike at the beginning of the month.

At the time, the minister said that “unfortunately there are pressure tactics that have disproportionate impacts on the population,” calling some of the situations Montrealers found themselves in “humanly inadmissible.”

“There are people who are in situations of great vulnerability and who absolutely need public transportation,” Boulet said.

Caroline Senneville, president of the CSN labour federation, said the law infringes on workers’ right to strike.

Mélanie Hubert, president of the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), accused the Legault government of “sowing chaos in society” by using tactics to “divide and conquer.”

“Quebec has pitted public transit employees against users and doctors against patients,” she cited as examples. “Enough is enough.”

Bill 3 is a ‘frontal attack’ on workers’ rights

Demonstrators also took aim at Bill 3 which changes funding models for union contributions.

Under the proposed law, any activities deemed to be outside of a union’s primary mission wouldn’t be eligible for financing via mandatory fees, but through optional ones only. Optional dues would also have to be approved through a majority vote before they could be collected.

According to the bill, any activities related to the launching of legal challenges over the constitutionality or validity of laws, the running of ad campaigns or a union’s participation in social movements would all fall under the optional dues model.

Picard said the Legault government never consulted unions about optional dues, calling the proposed law piecemeal legislation.

She also decried it as a “frontal attack” on workers, saying it undermines the balance of power, and “workers’ freedom of expression and association.”

Boulet tabled Bill 3 at the end of October with the goal of increasing transparency between unions and their members.

“We want to give workers more reliable access to information, because obviously they pay dues and they want to know, they need to know, how those dues are being used,” Boulet told reporters on Oct 30.

Some participants travelled hours to get to Montreal, coming from across the province by chartered bus. Union members from neighbouring Ontario and New Brunswick also attended in support of their Quebec counterparts.

Union leaders are not ruling out mass labour disruptions and other protests in the spring if the government continues on its current path.