Social dialogue: the Canadian recipe for avoiding strikes

Montreal

In France, the pension reform is getting tough this week, and the unions are already in battle order. In this context, the case of Canada, where negotiations between employers and unions take precedence, is a challenge. In the country, conflicts are often settled upstream, or with a mediator. Objective: to avoid costly strikes at all costs, both for companies and for trade unions.

Social dialogue in Quebec essentially passes through the latter and the State intervenes only in exceptional cases. Only one social conflict drags on in the Belle Province: that of the cashiers of the Société québécoise du cannabis, a public company, on strike since last April. Hired at a salary of 17 Canadian dollars an hour, 25% more than the minimum wage, marijuana officials charge at least 20 dollars an hour. Their demands find little response from the side of the Quebec state and, exceptionally, the negotiations are at the…