Pourquoi et comment la médiation préventive du Ministère du travail
améliore-t-elle les relations du travail dans les entreprises québécoises?

This Master's thesis has subject preventative mediation in the labor relations. Our research question is: ''Why and how does the preventative mediation of the Ministère du Travail improve Quebec’s businesses labor relations''. Preventative mediation is an administrative form of intervention and an added support mechanism to the Québecois' law system that has been offered for many years already by the Ministère du Travail to the employer and union parties who request it on a voluntary basis.   Preventative mediation is conducted, with the support of a Ministère du Travail mediator, outside of the collective bargaining period.  Its content belongs to the parties and the agreements are made by consensus.  Preventative mediation works in four different ways:  diagnostic of labor relations by consensus, diagnostic of labor relations by interview, labor relations seminar and labor relations committee.  The conceptual model uses labor relations as the dependent variable, preventative mediation as an independent variable, organizational change as an intermediary variable and organizational environment as a variable of control. The first of the three general hypotheses of this research stipulates that, other things being equal, preventative mediation brings organizational change.  The second general hypothesis indicates that, other things being equal, organizational change contributes to improve labor relations. The last general hypothesis corresponds to the idea that, other things being equal, the organizational environment has an impact on labor relations.  Amongst the following twelve hypotheses, four have been developed from the first general hypothesis:  1) other things being equal, the establishment of a labor relations diagnostic by a mediator will help put in place an action plan;  2) other things being equal, the establishment of an action plan by a mediator enables organizational change;  3) other things being equal, a follow-up by a mediator enables organizational change;  4) other things being equal, the perception from both parties (employer and union) that they played their part well contributes to organizational change.  The following four hypotheses are issued from the second general hypothesis:  1) other things being equal, a cultural change in the organization combined with a change from management’s view points contributes to improve labor relations;  2) other things being equal, a change of relation in the organization towards cooperative relations contributes to improve labor relations;  3) other things being equal, a change of management style in the organization with the introduction of human values and a ''discussion space'' contributes to improve labor relations;  4) other things being equal, the impression from both parties (employer and union) that they have well played their role contributes to improve labor relations.   Finally, the four last hypotheses were formulated using the third general hypothesis:  1) other things being equal, the organization has an impact on labor relations;  2) other things being equal, the labor-union’s history has an impact on labor relations;  3) the perception of external constraints and risks for the job itself contributes to improve labor relations;  4) other things being equal, the perception of an equilibrium in the power relationship between parties (employer and union) contributes to improve labor relations.  The verification of the hypotheses was done using the help of semi-structured discussions with nine participants from both employer and union parties in a business which had previously used preventative mediation.   A collect of secondary data was also performed to measure among other things the level of the conflict at work over a 10 years period.  The analysis of the results of this qualitative and longitudinal study confirmed the overall hypotheses since preventative mediation did bring an organizational change that improved labor relations as well as confirmed the environment also had an impact on labor relations. A model of analysis was developed and validated for this research in order to find out why and how preventative mediation from the Ministère du Travail improves labor relations in Quebec's businesses.  This research demonstrates in an empirical manner that preventative mediation improves labor relations in Quebec's businesses whilst attempting to explain how it operates.  In conclusion, this research recommends that unionized Quebec' organizations undertake preventative mediation if they suffer from deteriorated work relations.

Keyphrases: relations, travail, Québec, mediation, work, organization, change, Quebec