Four faculty associations of the McGill University that represent more than 500 academics have presented a judicial challenge against Bill 89 of Quebec, arguing that provincial legislation violates the constitutional right to strike.
The Confederation of Associations of the Faculty of McGill (COFAM) announced on Tuesday that the groups submitted a request for judicial review in the Superior Court of Quebec, trying to revoke the law, declaring the bill 89 unconstitutional and invalid to the date on which it was approved.
The bill was adopted on May 29. It gives the provincial minister of broad powers to restrict the strikes considered harmful to the public.
“This legislation represents a frontal attack on the fundamental rights of workers,” said Evan Fox-Decent, a law professor and president of the McGill Law Association, in a press release from COFAM.
FOX-DECENT Notes The 2015 ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Saskatchewan Work Federation, which found that the right to strike has been recognized as the “irreducible minimum” of freedom of association.
“Bill 89 tries to cancel this constitutional protection,” he said in the press release.
Barry Eidlin, vice president of the McGill Association of the Faculty of Arts, said in the press release that the law runs the risk of allowing the government to impose service requirements for universities during labor disputes, threatening academic independence.
“As a faculty, we have a particular responsibility to defend constitutional rights and the rule of law,” says Eidlin, who specializes in labor movements.
In an interview with CBC News, Eidlin says that this law is dangerous from a perspective of labor relations because “the base on which the collective bargaining in Quebec occurs.”
In order for significant negotiation, the holidays must be on a level playing field, he said.
Employers have many tools at their disposal to take advantage of their power over workers, while workers only have a tool at their disposal: the power to collectively retain their work, he explained. Removing that the leverage skew the playing field in favor of employers.
“Eliminates the employer’s incentive to reach an agreement, because they know they have a trick under their sleeves,” Eidlin said, adding that employers can drag their process until employees are ordered to work again.
The four associations involved in the legal challenge include the Association of the McGill Academic Staff of the School of Continuous Studies, the Association of McGill professors of the Faculty of Arts, the Association of Education Teachers of McGill and the Association of Professors of Law of McGill.
“It’s about protecting fundamental labor rights for all Quebec workers,” said Margaret Levey, president of the Association of Continuous Studies, in the press release.
In February, when Quebec Minister Jean Boulet presented bill 89, said he was inspired by recent and lasting strikes such as the labor conflict that lasted years in the Notre-Dame-de-Neiges cemetery that resulted in human remains unearthed by animals. It caused important delays for the mourners who tried to bury their loved ones.
He also cited the hypothetical situation of an educational strike that prevents services to children with special needs. Boulet said that the attacks involving ferry, food transport and school traffic in Quebec were other examples that led their office to write the bill.
Boulet said he wanted Quebec to have powers similar to the federal government, when he forced a return to work to hit the workers of the Canada post.
