Police keep an eye on the site of the new English superhospital as construction workers walked off the job for the second day in a row Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/CP
Wildcat strikes hit more than 110 construction sites throughout Quebec again on Tuesday, but there are signs that the labour disruptions are causing friction between unions and some of their members, who are taking the brunt of public outrage over the work stoppages.
In the face of mounting pressure from the public and politicians, some labour organizations signalled they were backing down amid charges from some workers that the unions were using intimidation tactics.
"We will recommend to our workers that they get back on the work sites [Wednesday]morning," Gérard Cyr, president of 45,000 member strong Provincial Council of Construction Trade Unions, said late Tuesday afternoon.
The order came down just moments after the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion "condemning the vandalism and intimidation on construction sites" and reiterating the right of workers and entrepreneurs to work freely in a safe environment.
Minister of Labour Lise Thériault urged construction firms to file complaints and at least 58 entrepreneurs did. But Yvon Guilbault, president of the group representing the province's electricians, said that construction companies where taken aback by the turmoil and were afraid to denounce the wildcat strikes for fear of reprisal.
"They don't want to become the target of certain groups," Mr. Guilbault said.
Tensions on work sites were evident throughout the day. In Montreal, workers knocked down a chain-link gate to shut down construction at an arts centre and chased non-striking workers away. Several workers oppose the illegal strikes but insisted that they had no choice but to walk away.
"They shut us down," said a worker sitting outside a downtown coffee shop who had planned to work on Tuesday. When asked whether he felt intimidated, the man in his 30s replied, "Let's just say we were encouraged to walk away by several guys who weighed about 250 pounds."
The wildcat strikes were taking a toll on the bottom line of several companies and seriously undermining the province's reputation. In Thurso, a town in the Outaouais region, the strike shut down work by contractors at a project by Vancouver-based entrepreneur Chad Wasilenkoff. He is transforming a hardwood pulp mill into a facility that makes a key ingredient in the manufacture of rayon.
The company, Fortress Paper Inc., has only a few weeks in which to convert the mill, and the strike has blown a big hole in that tight schedule.
Mr. Wasilenkoff figures the lost time adds up to between $500,000 and $600,000 per day in foregone profits, based on today's commodity prices.
"From our perspective, it's very challenging and frustrating," Mr. Wasilenkoff said in an interview Tuesday, the second full day of wildcat strikes that have cost companies tens of millions of dollars per day.
Politicians were also feeling the heat. In Laval, vandals threw excrement and mud at the riding office of Guy Ouellette. The Liberal MNA is presiding over hearings on a controversial bill that eliminates the union's control over hiring practices on major construction sites.
The proposed legislation sparked the angry strike response from the Quebec Federation of Labour construction unions and the Provincial Council of Construction Trade Unions. Together they represent the majority of the approximately 140,000 construction workers in the province. Both organizations denied accusations of using intimidation tactics to enforce the illegal strikes.
In its presentation before the committee hearings on Wednesday, QFL president Michel Arsenault will argue that the problem isn't with the unions but with the companies who break the laws.
"Sure the construction industry has working problems and these problems have names: collusion, corruption and illegal hirings," Mr. Arsenault will argue in his presentation.
The QFL, the most powerful labour organization in the province, condemned the "diversion" tactics used by the government in attacking unions. It said the government was trying to turn public attention away from the allegations of bid-rigging, mob infiltration and influence peddling plaguing the construction industry and crippling the government.
A devastating report last month by the head of the anti-collusion squad, Jacques Duchesneau, forced Premier Jean Charest to appoint a public inquiry into alleged industry corruption, as it relates to the awarding of government contracts and the financing of political parties.
But with the unleashing of wildcat strikes, public attention is now focused on Mr. Charest's tough stand against the unions rather than the impact of industry corruption on the credibility of the government.
With a file from Les Perreaux in Montreal
Rhéal Séguin
Bertrand Marotte