L'effet de l'allongement de la durée des conventions collectives sur les relations du travail locales en entreprise

Our research examines a recent phenomenon: the lengthening of the duration of collective agreements. The maximum duration of a collective agreement used to be three years. With the advent of globalization, all has changed drastically. In order to survive and remain competitive, businesses have had to adjust to this new paradigm by investing massively, restructuring, building on renewed partnerships with the unions and the like (Boivin, 1998). To succeed, it was imperative that they foster a climate characterized by stability and industrial peace (Grant and Paquet, 1998). Thus, they started to sign agreements seeking to extend the maximum duration of collective contracts (usually three years), while abiding by the provisions of the Code du travail (L.R.Q. c. C-27). These so-called « social covenants » had to embody various specificities. Then, on May 10, 1994, the Québec government lifted the ceiling on the duration of collective agreements (Mayer, 1999). As previously mentioned, increased globalization, with its attending changes, spurred all stakeholders to modify their ways of doing business. Labor relations were no longer a major source of conflict (Jalette, Bourque and Laroche, 2008). Negotiation strategies were increasingly steeped in cooperation and consensus-building, and the negotiating parties developed a relationship akin to a partnership (Maschino et al., 2001). At the same time, the duration of collective agreements has started increasing. We will examine what motivated the unions to negotiate such agreements, thus surrendering their right to strike and also whatever benefits – or drawbacks – such a trend held in store for the employers. More specifically, we will endeavor to find out: What are the effects of increasing the duration of collective agreements on local labor relations? For the purpose of our analysis, we have formulated the following research hypotheses: 1. Labor relations undergo transformations as a result of the duration of a collective agreement being increased; said duration hinging on the business climate. 2. With longer-term collective agreements, negotiating parties apply better co-operative strategies. 3. Longer-term collective agreements reduce the number of labor conflicts 4. Longer-term collective agreements change the way these conflicts play out in the workplace. 5. Longer collective agreement periods transform collective agreement contents by the addition of new provisions. 6. Longer-term collective agreements weaken the unions negotiating position. While aiming to address the aforementioned hypotheses, we have opted for a qualitative research methodology, namely the case study. The process involved three steps: data preparation, collection and interpretation (Merriam, 1998). The data we used were collected over the summer and fall of 2010. First, we conducted semi-structured interviews using a specific interview grid, which we adjusted according to individual respondents and, first and foremost, the parties they represented. Thus, we interviewed stakeholders from both sides, unions and employers. On the employers’ side, we met labor relations specialists working out of head offices as well as labor relations consultants responsible for negotiating or enforcing the collective agreements in force in various organizations covered by our study. On the union side, we met with union representatives who were also responsible for negotiating or enforcing the collective agreements. Eleven interviews were conducted in total. As a means of comparison, we also analyzed the content of 139 collective agreements in the food sector. We wanted to determine if most long-term collective agreements tended to include a greater amount of provisions related to the seven elements typical of the « social covenants » mentioned in Mayer, 1999. These are: economic and managerial transparency, shared management, total quality programs, training, work-planning flexibility, employment stability and collective agreement management processes. Key words: long-term agreements, duration, collective agreements, labor relations, Bill 116, IBN (interest-based negotiation) and consensus-building.

Keyphrases: Long-term agreements, Duration, Collective agreements, Labor relations, Bill 116, IBN (interest-based negotiation), Consensus-building