Warning message

Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.

Quebec, Thursday June 07, 2007– Once again the Quebec Superior court has rejected a request by Quebecor management for a provisional injunction against its employees. The banner that the locked out workers hung on their trailer last week upset management. The trailer is parked in the CUPE parking lot, located at 5050 des Gradins Boulevard. The court will have another hearing at a later date.

Thankfully absurdity is not anything that will kill you!» says Denis Bolduc, the union spokesperson for the Journal de Quebec locked out workers. “After creating 14 additional management positions in September, then demanding the elimination of dozens of jobs at the bargaining table, setting up a news room based out of Toronto to write the content of the paper while the workers have been locked out; and having hired security guards and erecting a barricade around its building it is truly absurd of management to expect loyalty and gratitude. Surely Quebecor was not expecting the locked out workers to put up a banner congratulating them for such horrible labour relations practices!”

Quebecor locked out its workers on April 22nd. Press workers voted 97% in favour of immediate strike action in solidarity with the editorial and advertising workers that had been locked out. Prior to the lockout none of the three Journal de Quebec unions had sought a strike mandate from their members. Since the 24th of April, the locked out workers and striking press workers have been publishing and distributing the new free daily MediaMatin Quebec.

In addition to the workers of the Journal de Québec, CUPE has 7,000 members in communications in Quebec and is present in several other sectors, notably health and social services, universities, education, urban and air transport, Quebec government corporations and public agencies, hydroelectric power, and municipalities. With about 100,000 members, CUPE is the largest affiliate of the 500,000-member FTQ, the most substantial confederation of labour unions in Quebec.