The practice of collective bargaining in the private sector in Quebec (Canada): the changing ‘rules of the game’

• Author: Sara Pérez‐Lauzon,Marc‐Antonin Hennebert
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12249
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019

The practice of collective bargaining in the

private sector in Quebec (Canada): the

changing ‘rules of the game’

Marc-Antonin Hennebert and Sara Pérez-Lauzon

ABSTRACT

Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with union negotiators active in the Quebec

private sector, this article shows that local bargaining practices, despite their plurality,

have tended to change following major trends. It also reveals, more fundamentally, a

redefinition of the ‘rules of the game’. The transformation and stability of these social

rules, which are much more focused on the needs of employers, have tended to

weaken collective bargaining as a tool for industrial democracy.

1 INTRODUCTION

Collective bargaining has long been a common and deemed-to-be-legitimate mecha-

nism for regulating employment relations and determining working conditions. How-

ever, since the 1980s, national collective bargaining systems have been under pressure

as a result of changes disrupting their economic, social and institutional environment

(Hayter, 2011; Kochan, 2012; Rose, 2016). Several studies have addressed the effects

of these contextual developments, highlighting the important changes in working con-

ditions coded in collective agreements (Chaison, 2012; Clark et al., 2012) and the

emergence of new bargaining actors competing with the union’s hold on this institu-

tion (Blanpain and Ameglio, 2004; Ribeiro, 2016) or assessing the macroeconomic

performance of particular structures of collective bargaining (Aidt and Tzannatos,

2008; Traxler and Brandl, 2012).

Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with union negotiators active in the pri-

vate sector in Quebec (Canada), this article investigates collective bargaining ‘from

within’. It aims, more specifically, to identify the effects of current contextual develop-

ments on collective bargaining practices and the capacity of this institution to remain

an expression of true industrial democracy and a tool for joint regulation by labour

and management actors. Thus, this article addresses two main questions for which

empirical evidence, to date, remains limited. First, beyond changes in the content of

collective agreements, how have the developments currently affecting the collective

bargaining context changed the practice of collective bargaining at the local level?

❒Marc-Antonin Hennebert and Sara Pérez-Lauzon, Department of Human Resources Management,

HEC Montréal, 3000, Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada.

Correspondence should be addressed to Marc-Antonin Hennebert, Researcher affiliated with the Inter-

University Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Department of Human Resources

Management, HEC Montréal, 3000, Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7,

Canada; email: marc-antonin.hennebert@hec.ca

Industrial Relations Journal 50:3, 240–255

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Second, what are the repercussions of these changes on the rules governing the social

relations between employers and workers?

In a nutshell, our results highlight changes in the practices of collective bargaining

and relations between union negotiators and union members. More fundamentally,

they also suggest that, behind these changes in collective bargaining practices, there

has been a gradual transformation of the social rules governing the parties’behaviour

at the bargaining table, to the benefit of employers, who now frame the bargaining

processes to a greater extent. Moreover, our analyses show that the

institutionalisation of new social rules has had the effect, in some workplaces, of

refocusing collective bargaining on the needs of employers, thus weakening the capac-

ity of collective bargaining to remain a tool for the joint regulation of working

conditions.

This article begins by presenting the development of collective bargaining in

North America. Next, it puts forward our theoretical framework, which builds on

negotiation theory, emphasising a focus on collective bargaining dynamics, notably

the distinction between inter-organisational and intra-organisational processes

(Katz et al., 2015; Walton and McKersie, 1965). This framework also draws on a

more sociological approach by building on the theory of social regulation, where

actors construct and adopt rules through the practice of negotiation in order to

regularise their relations (Reynaud, 1988, 1997). The third part presents the context

of this study, the methodological approach and the process of data collection and

analysis used. The fourth part presents the research results and highlights the

changes that have affected the practice of collective bargaining in the private sector

in Quebec. The fifth part concludes with an overall analysis of the effect that these

changes in the practice of collective bargaining have had on the rules regulating

employment relations and presents the study limitations and directions for future

research.

2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE NORTH

AMERICAN CONTEXT

Although our research project focuses on Quebec, the development of collective

bargaining has been much more fully documented in its broader regional context,

particularly since the 1980s (Bourque, 1993). Studies charting the historical develop-

ment of collective bargaining in North America have underlined the extent to which,

following the Second World War, this process gradually became institutionalised

around specific operating rules and practices. First, this institutionalisation process

more strictly defined the role played by each actor in the firm and the collective

bargaining process, making the union actor the main initiator of changes in collective

agreements at the local level. To move the bargaining process forward, trade unions

often adopted an offensive strategy entailing the use of coercion and pressure tactics,

including strikes (Kochan et al., 1986). Moreover, this type of strategy shaped a real

‘bargaining ritual’(Bilodeau and Sexton, 2013: 42) whereby the union actor ‘always

demanded more’while the employer sought to reduce these demands to the minimum

(Morin, 1993: 31). This institutionalisation process also restrictively delineated the

bargaining field. During this period, the union goals were limited to ‘bread-and-butter

issues’(Chaykowski and Verma, 1992: 24), that is, demands related to jobs and mon-

etary issues such as wages and the conditions in which the work was carried out

(Kochan, 1980). In addition, this model of collective bargaining was developed in

241Collective bargaining: the changing ‘rules of the game’

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd