I'll start.

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Garment workers express anger over 'odious attack' by Liberals
Charest doing away with provincial decree guaranteeing minimum working conditions

ALAN HUSTAK
The GAzette

Monday, December 01, 2003

After being employed for more than 20 years in Quebec's clothing- manufacturing industry Claudio Corsetti now fears for his employment future.

The 41-year old presser's anxiety was heightened on the weekend with the Charest government's announcement that it is going ahead with plans to deregulate the garment industry.

With the start of the new year, the government is doing away with a provincial decree, in place since 1934, that guaranteed minimum working conditions for Quebec's estimated 46,000 unionized and non-unionized clothing workers.

"I still have a contract that's good until 2005. But when we go back to the negotiating table, everything will be up for grabs," Corsetti said yesterday[...]

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[ 05 December 2003: Message edited by: Mick ]

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Unions target riding offices in protests, hint at new tactics next week

QUEBEC (CP) - Quebec unions trashed the riding offices of two Liberal members of the legislature Friday, capping a week of protest that involved vandalism.

Demonstrators pushed past staffers to spread garbage and shred documents in two incidents at riding offices in the region between Quebec City and Montreal.

The incidents were similar to vandalism at two other Liberal offices earlier this week in Montreal and Gatineau. Union members also held a rowdy protest at a Montreal children's hospital this week.

No charges were laid, but the protests are a prelude to major demonstrations next week across Quebec that are expected to shut down a number of provincial services.

Michel Dupont, a regional head of the Quebec Federation of Labour, said the tactics are necessary to send a message to Premier Jean Charest.

"If we do nothing, the government will do nothing to change its policies," Dupont told RDI, Radio-Canada's all-news channel. "It's one of the few tactics at our disposal."

Read more...

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McGill support staff break security cordon, demand fair wages, working conditions (MUNACA)

MONTREAL, Dec. 5 /CNW Telbec/ - More than 700 protesting McGill
University support staff burst through a security cordon at the downtown
campus yesterday and marched on to the university grounds to demonstrate
against Principal Heather Munroe-Blum's refusal to grant them decent wages and
working conditions.
Munroe-Blum, who is paid $350,000 a year, had tried to prevent the
support staff, most of whom earn less than $33,000 annually, from
demonstrating on campus. She dispatched a dozen beefy security guards to keep
the protesting workers off their own university grounds.
But the guards yielded when the support staff marched through their
security perimeter and on to the campus.

Read More...

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There are many opinions and priorities among us on the left. On the right it is power and profit at all costs.
I think it will be more difficult to divide and conquor the multi pronged left and while it is not clear how things will play out, it is a refreshing change from the "lockstep" "group think" so common in organizations, political parties, etc

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A Fight to the Finish
BATTLE LINES ARE BEING DRAWN IN QUEBEC
by Chad LUBELSKY
Alternatives
Published: Mon December 1er, 2003,

Jean Charest's seven-month old Liberal government argues that its plan to "re- engineer" Quebec will modernize it and bring it into line with the rest of North America. Ordinary Quebecers, meanwhile, look west to Ontario, Alberta and B.C., and realize that they are quite pleased with their distinct state and have little interest in being brought into line.

I wasn't planning on going to the anti-Charest march in Quebec City last Saturday. But then, I saw George Bush doling out turkey in Baghdad and as I thought about all the talk in activist circles of the link between militarization and corporate-led globalization, I felt I had no choice. I am glad I went.

At the end of the march, while trying to find my bus (#323) amidst the 500 that came from throughout the province, a representative from the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), Quebec's second largest union and the march's organizer, was telling me that 110 buses made the three-hour trip from Montreal. He repeated this in English since I guess, owing to my muted reaction, he thought I did not understand. He then told me that the previous record for number of buses from Montreal to Quebec City was 53 for the Summit of the Americas.

"You mean you more than doubled your record ?"

"Not only that, but this march was organized in less than a month, whereas organizing for Quebec City 2001 took more than a year." I was even gladder that I went.

Organizers said more than 30,000 people marched from the Plains of Abraham to the National Assembly on the coldest day of the year. Police put the number closer to 20,000. No matter. I found in talking to people, the reason for attending was nearly unanimous : (Premier Jean) Charest has no mandate to dismantle the State. These were not activists, although there were some in the crowd ; these were people worried about losing their jobs, their benefits and their way of life. Read More...

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[ 07 December 2003: Message edited by: Mick ]

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(Montréal) Manifestation contre Charest : PRÉCAIRES EN COLÈRE!

Charest et les libéraux coupent partout. Ils veulent casser les syndicats,
forcer le retour au travail, détruire le réseau public de garderies...Le 11
décembre, alors qu'à travers le Québec les lieux de travail seront perturbés,
perturbons les libéraux!

---------------------------------
PRÉCAIRES EN COLÈRE
******manifestation******
Jeudi 11 décembre 10h00
Carré Berri
---------------------------------

Un appel de la Fédération des Anarchistes-Communistes du Nord-Est (NEFAC)
Union locale de Montréal, [email protected], http://www.nefac.net

un plus long communiqué suivera dans les prochains jours...

(Montreal) Rally and Demo against Charest : PISSED OFF AND PRECARIOUS!

Charest and the Liberals want to scrap everything. They're busting unions,
forcing the unemployed back to work and trying to destroy the public daycare
system. On December 11th, as workplaces across the province of Quebec are
disrupted, the Liberal state machine will be disrupted as well!

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PISSED OFF AND PRECARIOUS
*******Rally and Demo*********
Thursday December 11th 10:00
Berri Square
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A call by the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC)
Montreal Local Union, [email protected], http://www.nefac.net

a longer communiqué will follow in the coming days...

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It seems that babble is an english-language website, but perhaps there's bi-lingual folks who want to read about the Quebec Workers Movement en Français?

Here's the sort of stuff I'm thinking of posting:

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Entretien Avec Un Préposé Aux Bénéficiaires Anarchiste: 1) Les Raisons De La Colère

Depuis quelques semaines, c'est la mobilisation générale dans les syndicats, plus particulièrement dans ceux du réseau de la santé et des services sociaux. Si, comme d'habitude, les directions syndicales "communiquent" beaucoup, on entend rarement parler de comment ça se passe à la base, dans les établissements. Nous avons rencontré Éric Maltais*, un militant de la NEFAC qui travaille comme préposé aux bénéficiaires dans un des hôpitaux syndiqués au Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique (SCFP, affilié à la FTQ) pour essayer de prendre le pouls du mouvement.

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[ 08 December 2003: Message edited by: Mick ]

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Labour set for 'day of disturbance'
Unions represent a million workers. Protest actions planned for Thursday; 'What do we want? Consultation'

KEVIN DOUGHERTY
The Gazette
Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Unions representing more than one million workers are to protest Thursday against a battery of bills introduced by the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest they say will destroy "social peace."

Only employees of Quebec's public day- care system have announced they will not work on Thursday, leaving the care of close to 200,000 pre-school children to parents, who may have to take the day off as a result.

Others will demonstrate at lunchtime where they work, outside the National Assembly and at the Montreal offices of Charest and Finance Minister Yves Séguin.

Read More...

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Charest downplays 'little lady'
'There was no bad intention' in remark. CSN boss seizes chance to meet with premier on eve of provincewide day of protest

As a million union members geared up for job actions across Quebec tomorrow to protest against what they regard as the anti-union, anti-social program of his government, Premier Jean Charest scrambled to explain his use of an insulting description of Claudette Carbonneau, president of the 280,000-member CSN labour federation.

In an interview published in La Presse yesterday, Charest referred to Carbonneau as "ma petite madame." Literally, "my little lady." But the translation doesn't capture the nuance of the words in French.

"Personally, I cannot stand that expression," said Diane Lemieux, Parti Québécois MNA and former president of Quebec's Conseil du statut de la femme.

"It is treating women like they were children," she said. " 'Ma petite madame' is like saying someone has the mental age of a 2-year-old, is not intelligent. It is contemptuous. In French it is pejorative.

Carbonneau called for a "day of disruption" tomorrow to protest against adoption by the Charest government of laws to reduce the number of unions in health care from 3,671 to 1,961, to place CLSCs and long-term-care facilities under the authority of hospitals and to allow easier contracting out of work.

Her call has been heeded by all Quebec's major labour federations.

Read More...

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[ 10 December 2003: Message edited by: Mick ]

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Web Posted | Dec 8 2003 02:19 PM EST

Strike will shut day care centres

MONTREAL - Most of Quebec's nearly 1,000 non-profit day care centres will be closed on Thursday as workers and parents take part in demonstrations in Montreal and Quebec City.

Demonstrators are upset over Bill 32, the provincial government's day care legislation that raises the cost subsidized child care from $5 to $7 dollars a day.

Gina Gasparini, a spokesperson for the Quebec Association of Non-Profit Daycares, said that 70,000 parents have signed a petition denouncing Bill 32. On Monday morning the petition was deposited at Premier Jean Charest's offices in Montreal.

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Another babbler asked for references on the 1972 General Strike, preferably in English. I believe there is an English version of Magnus Isaacson's NFB/ONF film on the general strike. The babbler should also look into back issues of the scholarly journal Labour/Le Travail. I'll try to find more when I have a bit more time.

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Communiqué Pour La Manif Des Précaires Contre Charest Demain / Communiqué For Tommorow's Precarious Workers Demo Against Charest

---------------------------------
PRÉCAIRES EN COLÈRE
******manifestation******
Jeudi 11 décembre 10h00
Carré Berri
---------------------------------

Chômeurs-euses, à temps partiel, non forméEs, jeunes, non-syndiquéEs, femmes, immigrantEs, tous et toutes, nous sommes des travailleurs précaires. Et misEs à pied, licenciéEs, rationaliséEs, fragiliséEs et sous-traitéEs, nous sommes en colère. Demain, en solidarité avec les participantEs à la journée nationale de perturbation des lieux de travail appelée par la CSN, nous voulons nous aussi faire entendre notre mécontentement face au gouvernement Charest.

The unemployed, part-timers, the untrained, youth, the non-unionized, women, immigrants, all of us, are precarious workers. And when we are fired, rationalized or sub- contracted, we become pissed off. Tommorow, in solidarity with the participants of national day of workplace disruption called by the CSN, we also want to voice our discontent with the Charest government.

Read More..

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Funeral workers strike

Canadian Press

MONTREAL-About 300 union workers with the Urgel Bourgie Funeral Homes in Montreal went on strike Monday at midnight.

The decision to strike was made unanimously by the union's executive after discussing the employer's last offer.

According the union spokesman Roger Poudrette, the offer addressed only a portion of salaries.

The last collective agreement expired July 20. Negotiations centred on wages, sub-contracting and the merger of collective agreements.

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Où est-ce que je peux aller le 11 décembre si je ne suis pas syndiqué? Combien de camarades se posent la question? Moi je l'ai entendue souvent en tout cas... Voici une liste, très partielle, des plus grosses activités du 11 décembre. Ça se base sur les communiqués syndicaux et je n'ai mis que les activités de masse où tous le monde risque d'être bienvenu... Notez qu'il y a aussi une quantité phénoménale d'autres activités. S'il y a un gros lieu syndiqué près de chez-vous, n'hésitez pas à passer par là (genre un hôtel, un hôpital, un cégep).

Horaire de la journée du 11 décembre

à Montréal

7 h à 9 h - Rassemblement à la Place des Arts (L'Esplanade devant le Complexe Desjardins).

10 h - manifestation, PRÉCAIRES EN COLÈRE, Carré Berri

12 h à 13 h - Marche du "baîllon" au coin des rues Côte Sainte-Catherine et Côte-des-Neiges avec les groupes communautaires de Côte-des-Neiges. (les manifestants se dirigeront au bureau de comté du ministre des Finances, Yves Séguin.)

13 h - Début du rassemblement au Carré Dominion des centres de la petite enfance (CPE). La marche se terminera sur la rue McGill College devant les bureaux du premier ministre Jean Charest.

Région de l'Outaouais

17 h - Manifestation devant hôtel Plaza-La Chaudière, dont le syndicat est en grève.

Sorel-Tracy

16 h à 18 h - Manifestation au Centre-ville de Sorel-Tracy.

Québec

11 h 30 - Grand rassemblement devant le Hilton à Québec.

12 h 30 à 14 h - Manifestation des CPE au parlement.

Joliette

12 à 13 h - Manifestation au centre-ville de Joliette.

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[ 11 December 2003: Message edited by: Mick ]

The roads through the Parc des Laurentides and via La Tuque, leading to the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region, are both being blocked by workers who vow to keep up their roadblock for 48 hours. In Québec City, big demonstrations outside the National Assembly where the leaders of the major labour confederations and community and feminist groups are speaking.

Here is some info about the Sunday demonstration in Montréal:

Dimanche, 14 décembre, 13hres

Reunions de coordination les jours précédents;

Une voix populaire contre la réingénierie de l’état

  - *Rassemblement*

Dimanche, 14 décembre, 13hres
coin Sherbrooke, McGill College (métro Peel)

La *« Coalition J’ai jamais voté pour ça »* appelle à un rassemblement  contre la ré ingénierie de Charest

Un regroupement composé de groupes  populaires, communautaires, altermondialistes et syndicaux de la région de Montréal ont annoncé aujourd’hui la création de la Coalition J’ai  jamais voté pour ça qui vise à contrer le plan de réingénierie du  gouvernement Charest.

Cette coalition démontre que la résistance au projet de réingénierie de l’état ne se limite pas aux groupes syndicaux  mais qu’un nombre croissant de mouvements sociaux sont en colère et s’unissent pour conjuguer un rapport de forces contre ce gouvernement  qui n’écoute et n’accepte comme seul lobby que le patronat et ses  représentants.

La Coalition exige le retrait ou du moins le report de  l’adoption des projets de loi déposés cet automne et que ce gouvernement  procède avec une réelle consultation publique.

Le regroupement, au-delà de toutes revendications sectorielles, veut  unir les forces populaires pour amorcer un blitz d’interventions contre cette démolition des acquis sociaux et appelle la population à un grand rassemblement devant le bureau du premier ministre Charest le dimanche 14 décembre à 13 heures (rendez-vous au coin McGill College et Sherbrooke).

La Coalition veut rendre visible sur la place publique que jamais la population n’a donné à Jean Charest le mandat dont il se réclame pour  procéder à sa transformation de l’État.  La campagne électorale de M. Charest était pleine de promesses concernant le domaine de la santé, de l’éducation, le maintien des garderies à 5 $, le support aux plus démuniEs, le tout empreint de compassion et de supposée écoute de la  population…

Les citoyenNEs, quel que soit leur vote du 14 avril dernier,  sont de plus en plus nombreux à rejoindre le rang de celles et ceux qui  n’ont « jamais voté pour ca ». La volte-face du Premier ministre et son entêtement à la poursuite de la réingénierie de l’état sans respecter la population a provoqué la fin de la paix sociale au Québec et s’il continue en ce sens, il devra en payer le prix car comme le dit si bien l’adage : « Qui sème le vent, récolte la tempête ».

Renseignements :

Claire Pagé, Conseil central du Montréal métropolitain - CSN
(514) 598-2012
[email protected]
*
- Mobilisation pour le 14 décembre!

* La coalition coordonnera une distribution de tracts le jeudi ,
vendredi et samedi prochain dans les métros !
Nous avons donc besoin de militant et militante pour la distribution !

* Rencontre de coordination mercredi le 10 décembre
 
  *À18h00

au 3720 avenue du Parc.
Métro Place des arts bus. 80 nord.

Point de rencontre pour la distribution :
La puck du Métro Berri.

Jeudi et vendredi
 À 7h30 et 16h00

Samedi à 12h00

* Renseignements :*

Regroupement autonome des jeunes
(514) 282-2027

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Originally posted by lagatta:
There is a surprise walkout at the Port of Montreal.

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Is this the working port, or the tourist 'old port'?

I know that workers at the 'old port' went through a strike this summer that had a fair ammount of militancy and self-organization - it wouldn't suprise me if it was them.

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Most unionised employees at the Old Port would be federal government employees, not directly affected by the questions at hand here.

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Indeed, during the strike this summer the fact that they were federal employees meant that they weren't protected by Quebec's anti-scab laws.

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Quebec protests snarl traffic, shipping, day care
Last Updated Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:06:43

MONTREAL - Thousands of angry public sector workers across Quebec are staging what they're calling a day of action to protest against Premier Jean Charest's plans to merge union locals and to contract out some jobs.

Montreal: Protesters block the docks
(CP photo)
The Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU) organized the mass protests. While most of the demonstrations are expected in Montreal, organizers hope a million people will come out across the province.

Montrealers immediately felt the effects of the protests.

The city's morning bus travel was disrupted after the doors of two bus garages were sealed. Several highways have been blocked by unionized protesters.

Protesters are stopping ships from entering ports in Montreal, Quebec City and Trois Rivieres.

Hospitals in Montreal have cancelled surgeries. Other hospitals across the province are reduced to essential services. Parents are scrambling to find child care as more than half of the city's public daycare centres shut down for the day.

Day care workers are opposed to a decision to raise daily daycare fees to $7 from $5.

Charest Thursday called on union leaders to control their membership and to immediately restore all public services.

"Now is the time for them to act, and to remind their membership that they have made a personal commitment that they would express themselves in the spirit of respect," said Charest.

Also at issue is a proposal to trim the size of the provincial government and reduce the presence of unions in the health care sector.

CNTU president Arthur Sanborn said Quebec workers didn't vote for these changes when they elected Charest.

Charest defended his proposed changes, saying the provincial government needs more outside contracting and more private sector partnerships to modernize.

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Workers Blockade Highways!

Along Highway 138, which is the main highway along Quebec's north shore, about 400 unionized workers are blocking transport trucks on The FTQ workers have been blocking the road since 6:15 this morning and are protesting the Charest government's Bill 31, which would allow for some government work to be contracted out.

The workers are mainly from the Manicouagan Hydro-Québec station and from a mill in the area. They are only blocking trucks from passing. Other vehicle traffic has been slowed, but is still getting through.

The FTQ says the road block will stay up until noon on Friday.

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[ 11 December 2003: Message edited by: lagatta ]

This morning

Montreal: http://ftq.qc.ca/actualites/images.asp?aid=2815

Baie-Comeau: http://www.scfp.qc.ca/espace/photos/baiecomeau11dec2003/

Teachers yeasterday in Quebec City:
http://www.csq.qc.net/diaporamas/dia_10_12_03/diaporama.htm

CUPE during the week accross the province:
http://www.scfp.qc.ca/actualite_plus.php

General strike, mini-actions next on union agenda
- Montreal Gazette

Job actions are only 'warning,' Massé says. - Montreal Gazette

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QUEBEC (CP) - Premier Jean Charest's Liberal government pushed through changes to labour laws Wednesday despite union protests in an attempt to make the province more competitive with the rest of Canada.

Several hundred union members demonstrated again Wednesday outside Charest's Montreal home, a target of their wrath. A new law making it easier for subcontracting has drawn thousands of union members into the streets in recent weeks.

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