Around 1,200 delegates from the various unions in the largest federation in Quebec (FTQ) will meet at a convention starting Monday -- a convention at the end of which President Daniel Boyer will retire.

The Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) president will step down after three terms as president and one as general secretary.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Daniel Boyer said he was at peace with leaving and looking forward to "a real retirement," cycling and playing golf -- which does not mean he is rejecting in advance any offer that might be made to him.

"I'm not giving up on some of the offers that might be made to me either. I'm told I'm on all sorts of lists. I don't know. If I am offered interesting things, which coincide with values I have defended all my life, I don't say no," he said.

But it will have to be less time-consuming than leading a 600,000-member trade union federation, acting as first vice-chairman of the board of directors and member of the executive committee of the FTQ Solidarity Fund, sitting on the executive committee of the Canadian Labour Congress, and on the general council of the International Trade Union Confederation. And that's not counting all the joint labour-management organizations in Quebec on which he also sits.

LOOKING BACK

From his years as FTQ president, Daniel Boyer remembers "the great confidence that workers have in the FTQ."

And "it's reciprocal," he hastened to add.

During his reign, several important battles were fought, such as the protection of pension plans in case of company bankruptcy, the minimum wage and the revision of the occupational health and safety plan, among others.

He said he was also proud of the fact that he had been able to maintain "a good deal of solidarity" between the FTQ's major unions: the United Steelworkers, Unifor, Teamsters, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Quebec Service Employees Union (SQEES), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and others.

"It is even growing between affiliates, as is the mutual support between the FTQ's private and public sector unions," he argued.

And this time a common inter-union front has been reconstituted for the next round of public sector negotiations.

NO MORE GOVERNING ALONE

If he has a message to deliver to the Legault government, it is to accept social dialogue and to stop making the unions responsible for what is not working, in health and education for example.

"I hope that it won't be a dictatorship, that this government won't manage Quebec from the top of its 90 MNAs, by deciding, the CAQ alone, for all Quebecers, for the next four years. Because it won't be fun," said Boyer.

During more than two years of the pandemic, there was decree after decree, notably to impose working conditions on employees, setting aside the unions, according to him.

"The government, as legislator, has allowed itself to do what it does not allow any other employer to do. There is no other employer who can unilaterally modify working conditions in a unionized environment where there is a work contract,'' said Boyer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 15, 2023.