Genèse et mutation de la Loi sur les décrets de convention collective au Québec

The Act on the legal extension of labour collective agreements was adopted by the Quebec government in 1934 to protect workers affected by the economic crisis and to help them to organize in unions. Promoted by Catholic unions, it bears a unique model of labour relations that does not prevail elsewhere in North America. The law, which relies on labour-management cooperation, allows the government by decree to extend a collective agreement concluded by a union to all firms of an industry in a given territory. His philosophy originated from the social doctrine of the Catholic Church with the ultimate goal of setting up professional corporations, the basic unit of corporatist society. The law passed a year before the Wagner Act, the Magna Carta of organized labour in the United States, that inspired the adoption of a law with the same principles in Quebec in 1944. This law provides stiff competition to the law of decrees that remains, however, in industries where competition is strong and where labour means a large part of production costs. In the 1970s, the law is experiencing a renewed interest by unions and industrial relations specialists to facilitate union recognition by areas or by many employers in the same bargaining unit. The highly decentralized bargaining framework of the Labour Code was seen not well suitable to the evolution of the labour market. Since the 1980s, the decree system is harm by the liberalization of labour relations in the wake of neo liberalism. In this mood, the government abolished the decrees regulating the work of 23 000 employees in the garment industry. In Quebec as elsewhere, the whole system of labour relations born in the 1930s is eroded as the government is swayed by the deregulation of collective labour relations. Resume La Loi relative a l’extension juridique des conventions collectives de travail est adoptee par le gouvernement du Quebec en 1934 pour proteger les travailleurs frappes par la crise economique et favoriser leur syndicalisation. Fruit de revendications des syndicats catholiques, elle porte un modele particulier de relations de travail qui ne s’imposera pas ailleurs en Amerique du Nord. La loi, qui mise sur la collaboration patronale-syndicale, permet au gouvernement d’etendre par decret a toutes les entreprises d’un secteur industriel, dans un territoire determine, les termes d’’une convention collective conclue par un syndicat. Sa philosophie est issue de la doctrine sociale de l’Eglise catholique avec comme but ultime la formation de corporation professionnelle, cellule de base de la societe corporatiste. La loi est adoptee une annee avant le Wagner Act, la «Magna Carta» du mouvement syndical aux Etats-Unis, qui inspire l’adoption de lois similaires Canada et au Quebec pendant la Deuxieme Guerre. Cette loi apporte une dure concurrence a la loi des decrets qui demeure presente cependant dans les industries ou la concurrence est vive et ou la main d’œuvre represente une forte proportion des couts de production. Dans les annees 1970, la loi connait un regain d’interet du cote des syndicats et des specialistes de relations indus-trielles afin de faciliter l’accreditation sectorielle ou multi patronale. On juge que le cadre de negociation tres decentralise selon le Code du travail ne repond plus aux transformations du marche du travail. Depuis les annees 1980, le regime des decrets est touche par la liberalisation des relations de travail dans le sillage du courant de pensee neoliberal. Dans cet esprit, le gouvernement abolit en 1999 les decrets de l’industrie du vetement, ce qui affecte 23 000 salaries. Au Quebec comme ailleurs, c’est tout le systeme de relations de travail ne des annees 1930 qui s’erode a mesure que le gouvernement se laisse gagner par la dereglementation des rapports collectifs de travail.

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