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The Quebec City blue-collar union, affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), has released a satiric cartoon featuring the mayor of the capital, Régis Labeaume. The animated cartoon is currently posted on YouTube.
- See video on YouTube (link will open in a new window)
In about two minutes, the cartoon depicts a fictional day in the life of the mayor. Believe it or not, the script was based on his actual statements. Of course, the context was modified to accentuate their outrageous if not ridiculous character.
“Last summer,” said the president of the manual employees’ union, Marc-André Dufour, “I promised that the blue-collars would do things in an original way, and this is one example.”
“It’s kind of a Christmas present, and a wink to the citizens,” he added. “The mayor is known to take perverse pleasure in regularly denigrating his employees and his political opponents. That is both deplorable and disheartening. But we figured it might be better to laugh about it. Hence the cartoon.”
“Watch us,” the mayor recently said. In less than two minutes, you can watch him on YouTube and see the “liars”, the “miners of the system” and “Clotaire Rapaille” (Rapacious Clovis).
Background: There are about 1,350 Quebec City blue-collar workers. Since May 24, 2012, they have been on a legal overtime strike, providing essential services. They have been without a labour contract since December 31, 2010. They had not exercised the right to strike for more than 25 years. Negotiations between Quebec City and its blue collars began in February 2011. To date, the parties have held 25 rounds of negotiations since February 2011, including 16 in the presence of a mediator appointed by the Minister of Labour.
With more than 111,000 members in Quebec, CUPE represents about 70% of the province’s municipal employees, who account for 31,110 of the union’s members. CUPE is also present in the following sectors: social services, communications, education, energy, Quebec government corporations and public agencies, urban and air transport, the mixed sector, and universities.