Canadian Labour Reporter

maintained during the labour ac- tion, and the second round of la- bour action is scheduled to begin Nov. 9. A major stumbling block for the parties is the issue of wage increases. At press time, the pro- vincial government announced its intention to modify its pro- posal. Previously, the government's offer included a two-year wage freeze followed by annual in- creases of one per cent for the fol- lowing three years. The Common Front is call- ing for wage increases of 13.5 per cent over three years. The coali- tion vowed that pressure on the government will increase if talks continue to stall, culminating with three days of walkouts on Dec. 1, 2 and 3. "Many protests have been staged," said Maxime Clement, press officer for SISP. "Petitions, regional demonstrations, sym- bolic actions — even a demon- stration gathering a massive crowd of 150,000 people in the streets of Montreal on Oct. 3. "Confronted with the inflex- ibility of this government, a strike remains the last thing at our dis- posal to avoid the disastrous con- sequences that these offers would have on our public service." Clement said the Common Front is working to take advan- tage of the current round of bar- gaining to put an end to the pay disparity between public and private employees, as well as protect workers' pension and re- tirement benefits from proposed cutbacks. "The Common Front is ready to negotiate, but the government needs to address these issues," Clement said. "A salary freeze for the next two years is just unacceptable for the public sector workers." The unions are calling on the province to invest a portion of its surplus in public services to bridge the gap between the par- ties' current proposals. The government, however, announced the surplus would be invested in its Fonds des Généra- tions for the purpose of paying off the province's public debt. And when Treasury Board president Martin Coiteux an- nounced the government would modify its proposals following the rotating strikes, he was clear any compromises would still al- low the government to stay on track for its goal of a balanced budget in 2016. Coiteux said the government will continue to challenge unions to minimize the impact of strikes on the lives of citizens, whom he described as being held hostage by the walkouts. "Union members have the right to express their discontent as long as the health and safety of the population is not infringed upon," Coiteux said in a state- ment. "The government believes it is possible to make progress within these parameters." Case law continues to develop Michael Sherrard, a lawyer at Sherrard Kuzz in Toronto, said the ongoing negotiations and la- bour action are increasingly sig- nificant as case law continues to develop with respect to the role the right to strike plays in collec- tive bargaining. "The right to walk off the job or the right to strike is an intrinsi- cally important part of collective bargaining," he said. "Inherently, our system was based upon the parties' ability to challenge each other lawfully in order to compromise in their re- spective positions." When faced with escalat- ing labour action, governments must decide whether or not they should legislate employees back to work, Sherrard said. "If I'm reading the Quebec sit- uation correctly, it's highly likely the government will be seriously looking at legislating workers back to work as a reaction to the unions escalating their right-to- strike activities." The stakes are heightened, he said, because of the number of employees being affected by ne- gotiations. "Most parties, whether you're on the employer side or the trade union side, as they go to bargain- ing, each side is trying to find ways to help maximize achieving an agreement on their propos- als," Sherrard said. "So people are looking for leverage. If it's a single union versus multiple unions or if it's 10 people versus 400,000 peo- ple, it makes a big difference… it is significant." While Sherrard believes legis- lating employees back to work is a very real option for the provincial government, he said a net zero outcome could be a viable alter- native for the parties. A net zero agreement would prevent wage freezes by asking the unions to offset any pay in- creases elsewhere in the agree- ment, he said. "Everyone is being cautious with respect to looking at alter- natives to achieve compromise before they simply legislate back." Sherrard mentioned Saskatch- ewan's essential services laws, which were struck down as un- constitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada. "People are actually look- ing, fundamentally, for ways to achieve compromise and then absent any ability to do that, leg- islating back." 7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER NEWS < from pg. 1 Quebec government announces possible compromise Photo: SISP Further labour action is scheduled to begin on Nov. 9. The rotating strikes will escalate to provincewide walkouts in December if progress is not made at the negotiation table, the Common Front said.

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