In 2005, the Charest government adopted Law 43 in order to gag the workers. Today, the same government is attacking the students by unfreezing the tuition fees.
At first, Law 43 imposed to to all of the public employees a collective agreement (contract between the workers and the bosses, which normally is not imposed but is rather the result of a collective bargaining inside the union and with the bosses). Then Law 43 prohibited the support by the workers of any movement that could slow down or disrupt the delivery of public services, which, in our case (the students), mean the lessons given by our teachers.
"Nobody is allowed, either by omission or otherwise, to oppose or to harm, in any possible way, the resuming or the continuation of the normal services delivered by a public sector institution or the execution by workers of their work relative to such services, nor contribute directly or indirectly to slow down, alter or delay the execution of such work." (Article 28 of the Law - Our translation in English).
In fact Law 43 forbids these employees to resort to any kind of fightback or denunciation. The law tramples even on the freedom of expression of workers by imposing extremely harsh fines to all those who do not obey. This law is so anti-democratic that even the United Nations Organization is denouncing it in a report issued by the International Labour Office (I.L.O.).
Fines for going against Law 43 vary between 500.00 and 1,000.00$ for a person, between 7,000.00 and 35,000$ for a union representative, and other amounts are specified for other categories, the number of categories covering a very wide sector.
"Anyone who helps, encourages, gives a piece of advice, a consent, an authorization, an order, who brings another person to commit an infraction specified by the present section is committing an infraction."
But recently Education Minister Michèle Courchesne declared that Law 43 did not apply to student unions. Before this declaration, student unions were in a grey zone since one can always say that a student strike disrupts the carrying out of courses the same way that teacher strike. But although, in theory, our right to strike is intact, in reality the teachers and the administrations have no longer, formally, the right to support us in our actions. Therefore during the 3-day strike the administration of the "CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal" (a pre-university education institution) refused to sign an agreement with the Student Association of the CÉGEP, and preferred to hide behind Law 43. But due to the importance of the strike movement during that week, the Minister of Education announced that the administrations would not be punished if they closed the education institutions. This is why the administration of the CÉGEP had the occasion and the possibility to negotiate with the student union on the question of holding a pacific and educative strike.
Infamous Law 43 constitutes a serious blow to democracy, and we must abolish it at any cost. This is why during the 3-day strike the second demand was the abolition of Law 43, the first demand being the stopping of the tuition fee hikes and more funding for Education.
Pour consulté la décision du BIT :
At first, Law 43 imposed to to all of the public employees a collective agreement (contract between the workers and the bosses, which normally is not imposed but is rather the result of a collective bargaining inside the union and with the bosses). Then Law 43 prohibited the support by the workers of any movement that could slow down or disrupt the delivery of public services, which, in our case (the students), mean the lessons given by our teachers.
"Nobody is allowed, either by omission or otherwise, to oppose or to harm, in any possible way, the resuming or the continuation of the normal services delivered by a public sector institution or the execution by workers of their work relative to such services, nor contribute directly or indirectly to slow down, alter or delay the execution of such work." (Article 28 of the Law - Our translation in English).
In fact Law 43 forbids these employees to resort to any kind of fightback or denunciation. The law tramples even on the freedom of expression of workers by imposing extremely harsh fines to all those who do not obey. This law is so anti-democratic that even the United Nations Organization is denouncing it in a report issued by the International Labour Office (I.L.O.).
Fines for going against Law 43 vary between 500.00 and 1,000.00$ for a person, between 7,000.00 and 35,000$ for a union representative, and other amounts are specified for other categories, the number of categories covering a very wide sector.
"Anyone who helps, encourages, gives a piece of advice, a consent, an authorization, an order, who brings another person to commit an infraction specified by the present section is committing an infraction."
But recently Education Minister Michèle Courchesne declared that Law 43 did not apply to student unions. Before this declaration, student unions were in a grey zone since one can always say that a student strike disrupts the carrying out of courses the same way that teacher strike. But although, in theory, our right to strike is intact, in reality the teachers and the administrations have no longer, formally, the right to support us in our actions. Therefore during the 3-day strike the administration of the "CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal" (a pre-university education institution) refused to sign an agreement with the Student Association of the CÉGEP, and preferred to hide behind Law 43. But due to the importance of the strike movement during that week, the Minister of Education announced that the administrations would not be punished if they closed the education institutions. This is why the administration of the CÉGEP had the occasion and the possibility to negotiate with the student union on the question of holding a pacific and educative strike.
Infamous Law 43 constitutes a serious blow to democracy, and we must abolish it at any cost. This is why during the 3-day strike the second demand was the abolition of Law 43, the first demand being the stopping of the tuition fee hikes and more funding for Education.
Pour consulté la décision du BIT :
http://www.sfpq.qc.ca/Grands_enjeux/Negociation/pdf/divers/archives/Decision_BIT.pdf (the text is in french)
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