Canadian Labour Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 CANADIAN LABOUR REPORTER NEWS < Quebec pg. 1 such a long time." The CSD provided $225 per week while the local SDEG-CSD contributed $175 per week. That additional $175 per week was pro- vided through the union's acquisi- tion of a $3-million bank loan and the employees have five years to pay back the funds from that loan. The contract eventually reached by the union and employ- er group will expire in six years. "That's good," Prudhomme said, "because if we had a short con- tract, we would have the same situ- ation happening with the employ- ers putting people on the street again." Prudhomme said the work- ers' determination throughout the lockout inspired the union to stand its ground and led to an agreement with significant wage increases. The contract includes wage increases of two per cent for the three years of the dispute, a wage increase of three per cent for 2016, a wage increase of 2.3 per cent through 2021 and a wage increase of three per cent in its final year. While a number of employees returned to work on Jan. 25, some still require the union's support as the employers gradually recall workers. Under Quebec law, the affected garages were unable to operate without unionized em- ployees and, as a result, the work- ers will be recalled only as demand for services increases. Strike and defence funds were created for these very circum- stances, according to Barb Dolan, director of Unifor's strike and de- fence fund. "Through the Rand formula, unions collect dues from union- ized members. A portion of those dues go directly into the strike and defence fund. We have a strike and defence fund policy which sets out the guidelines on when strike or lockout pay commences and how long it lasts," Dolan said. "It would last for the duration of the strike or lockout, but there are some situations where you may have a strike or lockout and you reach a settlement but the return- to-work date isn't the same for ev- erybody. "There are provisions in our strike and defence fund where, if a person doesn't return to work from that strike or lockout, they can still receive strike support for up to 28 days." This support of employees dur- ing their period off work is a criti- cal aspect of the union's structure, she said. "It's not a lot of money, but the purpose of the strike and defence fund is to assist our members when they're in that position be- cause no union ever wants to put their membership in a position where they have to just accept whatever the employer puts in front of them, or whatever kinds of concessions, because there's no finance," Dolan said. Knowing that a strike and de- fence fund is the only safety net workers can rely on during a la- bour dispute is something that weighs heavily on union lead- ers, according to Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). "When a dispute is triggered, there is always an understanding that you don't have any control over when the dispute will be set- tled," Yussuff said. "In every occasion that there is a strike, it's always seen as the last resort. Before you can access the right to go on strike, you must ex- haust every possible option to try and reach a tentative agreement without disruption. It's always seen as a last resort because once you're in the dispute and you've made the decision to withdraw your labour, it's really difficult to wake up the next morning and say, 'We made a mistake.' It is a serious thing.'" If these disputes drag on for months or even years, as it did for the mechanics in Saguenay-Lac- Saint-Jean, the strike and defence fund is crucial support for not only the employees who, by virtue of withdrawing their services, are no longer on the payroll, but also their families and communities, he said. Larger unions may have funds capable of sustaining a significant number of workers for a long pe- riod of time, but smaller organiza- tions may be limited in their con- tributions to employees. "For smaller unions, it's quite a challenge," Yussuff said. "They may be limited in their contribution and then they are highly dependent on solidarity support to maintain some support for workers." SDEG-CSD benefited from solidarity support from unions including the United Steelwork- ers and the Fédération Québécoise de Dynamophilie. This support, Prudhomme said, along with the bank loan, allowed the union to persevere. "We didn't back off," he said. "Now we need to look at the situ- ation and work to bring the em- ployees back and to avoid living through that situation again in six years. We have six years to build a good working relationship be- tween the employer and workers and union." Affected employees have 5 years to pay off debt Photo: Centrale des Syndicats Démocratiques "When a dispute is triggered, there is always an understanding that you don't have any control over when the dispute will be settled." The affected employees' local union took out a $3-million bank loan in addition to CSD's strike and defence fund. The workers have five years to pay that money back now that the labour dispute is over.

• Cover