Industrial and Public Sector
Workers Hold Vigil at Quebec National Assembly
Workers Speak Out Against the Dismantling of the Occupational Health and Safety Regime
From the morning of May 31 to 5:00 pm on June
2, a period of 59 hours,
hundreds of workers participated in a vigil in
front of the National
Assembly in Quebec City to prevent the adoption
of the Quebec
government's Bill 59, An Act to modernize the occupational
health and
safety regime. Statements issued during the vigil all rejected the bill as unacceptable.
Bill 59, if passed,
would dramatically reduce access to treatment
and compensation for
workers injured or made ill on the job in order
to save employers more
than $4 billion over ten years. The bill gives
unilateral power to
employers to determine workplace prevention and
health programs, the
hours
that will be devoted to prevention, how the
joint health and safety
committees will operate, and many other aspects
of the system.
The unions and defence organizations of injured
workers that
participated in the vigil included the United
Steelworkers - Quebec,
the Union des travailleuses et travailleurs
accidentés ou
malades (UTTAM), the Canadian Union of Public
Employees - Quebec,
Unifor, the Union of Quebec Government
Professionals, the Alliance du
personnel
professionnel et technique de la santé et des
services sociaux
(APTS), the Quebec Union of Service Employees
(SQEES) and many others.
Central labour bodies including the Quebec
Federation of Labour (FTQ), the
Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) and
the Congress of Democratic
Trade Unions (CSD) were also present on a regular
basis at the
vigil.
ArcelorMittal workers join vigil against Bill
59, June 1, 2021
Striking Olymel Vallée-Jonction
workers participate in vigil, June 2, 2021
On
June 1, about 200 fly-in fly-out workers on strike at ArcelorMittal on
Quebec's North Shore came to participate in the vigil. On June 2, 200
Olymel workers on strike in Vallée-Jonction in Beauce region
came to participate. These workers clearly indicated that one of the
important aspects of their strikes is health and safety conditions at
the work sites, notably ArcelorMittal's refusal to make the necessary
investments to make the sites and equipment safe and Olymel's demands
for health and safety concessions. They stated that they are fighting
against the dictate of these monopolies and explained that the
situation would only get worse if Bill 59, which strengthens the power
of the employers in the name of "modernization," is adopted.
Participants
in the vigil spent a lot of time talking to
people on the street to
explain what the legislation is and why it must
be defeated. They also
spoke to members of the National Assembly,
explaining their position
and asking them not to pass this bill. This
followed weeks of activity
by union activists who phoned or held virtual
meetings
with MLAs in their ridings and regions to
present their position and
ask them to take a stand against the bill and in
defence of
workers' health and safety.
Months
of actions and mobilization against this dismantling of the health and
safety regime have made it now virtually impossible for the National
Assembly to pass the bill before the legislature adjourns for the
summer on June 11. Bill 59 amends two major pieces of legislation,
the Act
respecting industrial accidents and
occupational diseases and the Act
respecting occupational health and safety.
The clause-by-clause review
of the bill by the Committee on Labour and the
Economy has not even
started to address the sections relating to the
second Act.
Workers learned on June 1 that the Committee
would not be sitting on
June 1 and 2 as scheduled. The surreal climate
in which the government
is manoeuvring was well expressed at the May 31
meeting of the
committee when Labour Minister Jean Boulet said
he appreciated that
everyone, both supporters and opponents of the
bill, recognized
the "legitimacy" of Bill 59. He added that if he
could be convinced
that the bill needed to be improved, he would do
so! This at a time
when hundreds of workers were demonstrating
nearby to declare that his
bill will destroy lives and is unacceptable from
top to bottom.
 These
pathetic statements who are showing that government ministers are the
servants of narrow private interests speak volumes about the disconnect
between what is called the public authority, which is exercising
prerogative powers on behalf of the rich, and the public, the workers
who do the work and keep the economy going. Workers have the right to
safe and healthy working conditions and to have all the services they
need for care, rehabilitation, compensation and re-training if they get
injured or sick on the job, paid for by those who buy their capacity to
work.
The options available to the government as the
current session of
the National Assembly draws to a close are to
continue clause-by-clause
consideration by the Committee at the end of the
summer or in September
when the National Assembly reconvenes to force
the passage of the bill
under closure, to withdraw it altogether or to
let it die on the
order paper.
The Coalition Avenir Québec government would do
well to think
twice before using closure or going back to
clause-by-clause
consideration. The collective actions of workers
will not stop, because
lives are at stake. The mobilization of the last
few months and the
collective action of the vigil has made workers
more confident and more
determined to be effective by speaking out on
what changes are needed
that favour themselves and society. Bill 59 must
be withdrawn. No reform of the occupational health
and safety system can be
made without workers having a decisive say and
without the reform being
based on their demands, their rights and their
needs.
Workers' Forum fully supports all the
actions that Quebec
workers are taking to make their voices heard
and create public opinion
for the defeat of Bill 59.
This article was published in
June 4, 2021 - No. 53
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08531.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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