QUEBEC LABOUR FEDERATION (CSQ) CONSENTS TO THE EXPLOITATION OF UNPAID INTERNS AND THREATENS TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PROVINCE'S COMMON FRONT

CSQ (Centrale des syndicats du Québec) leadership has taken an anti-feminist and anti-worker position by blocking the application of petitions for certification in the education sector, citing unjustified claims of raiding.

MONTREAL, May 11, 2023 /CNW/ - The association representing UQAM's education students, ADEESE, and the union representing UQAM'S student employees, SÉTUE, denounce the CSQ's interference in their attempt to unionize school service centers interns. Through their interference, the CSQ is attempting to stop those interns from exercising their right to unionize.

After many months of mobilization by ADEESE and SÉTUE, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has applied for 36 petitions for certifications across 18 different school service centers. The goal was to obtain from the tribunal the right to negotiate collective agreements for interns at each of the 18 school service centers.

It is important to highlight that students do not receive any salary during their internships. They remain in a stressful and tenuous situation on a daily basis. Therefore, many student associations have led mobilizations and strikes, with the goal of pushing the government to offer a baseline wage to interns along with decent work conditions.

This fight for appropriate work conditions and salaries is essentially feminist. Interns in education, sexology, social work, and more broadly in the health sector are demanding appropriate pay in a work environment where women represent the majority of workers. Other interns in male-dominated disciplines such as engineering already receive a salary.

Unexpectedly, the CSQ asked PSAC to remove their certification requests in the school service centers where the CSQ is already established. Otherwise they threaten to withdraw from the common front of the public sector–a labour coalition that speaks for more than 400,000 government employees working in the health sector. The CSQ is ready to weaken labour's collective voice, all while leaving school service centers interns in a state of precarity. Both these sectors' workers are, for their vast majority, women. We have offered to schedule a meeting several times so we could come to an agreement. None of our requests have been granted so far.

CSQ's demand is not based on any reasonable grounds, and undermines serious attempts to provide salaries and better working conditions to interns. It is appalling to see a major labour federation attempting to stop unpaid interns from forming a union on the basis of a turf war between labour leaders.

We were expecting such an attack from the employer, but not from other labour leaders! This is a low blow, and we firmly denounce this interference in the interns' right to unionize.

Letter addressed to Mr. Éric Gingras and distributed within the federations and local unions of the CSQ: http://www.adeese.org/lettre-csq/

The Association des étudiantes et étudiants de la faculté des sciences de l'éducation de l'UQAM (ADEESE-UQAM) represents nearly 5300 students in various fields of education.

The Syndicat des étudiants et étudiantes employé-e-s de l'UQAM (SÉTUE) represents more than 3000 workers at UQAM as teaching or research assistants as well as non-academic personnel.

SOURCE ADEESE-UQAM

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