The meeting planned for Monday between Pierre Karl Péladeau and representatives of the TVA employees’ union ultimately did not take place and the tone is rising on both sides.
The union maintains that the big boss of Quebecor canceled the meeting late Monday morning and describes the cancellation as “extremely regrettable.”
Sunday evening, union advisor Steve Bargoné was on the show Tout le monde en parole in the company of two journalists from the TVA network to take stock of the reorganization announced on November 2 at the TVA Group resulting in the departure of 547 employees.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, for his part, affirms that due to Steve Bargoné’s public accusations, he preferred to withdraw from the meeting scheduled for Monday and make way for Quebecor’s vice-president of human resources, Roxanne Doucet, and Martin Dalpé, senior director of labor relations at Quebecor.
“Steve Bargoné has decided not to appear and to cancel this meeting,” says Pierre Karl Péladeau in an electronic communication sent Monday to TVA employees and also sent to La Presse.
For the union, the meeting scheduled for Monday with Pierre Karl Péladeau was considered “essential” in the search for solutions to the “crisis” and “determining” for the future.
Pierre Karl Péladeau deplores that since November 2, “erroneous and misleading” information has been conveyed by union representatives, including advisor Steve Bargoné.
“We deplore this situation where union representatives seem engaged in a public relations exercise which can only harm the usual exchange processes planned in terms of labor relations,” he adds.
“Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear to us that the union representatives have decided to take the path of confrontation. »
Pierre Karl Péladeau specifies that at the dawn of negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements, this situation does not appear to bode well for any of the parties involved.
Details surrounding the collective dismissal were also provided to employees during the weekend. This information makes it possible to draw up a list of all the positions abolished in each region, and the union describes the finding as “striking”.
All affected regions are feeling the repercussions, and the results are “gloomy from one end of the province to the other,” underlines the union.
Among the 547 employees to be cut, 492 are union members. The union says this is 46% of the union membership at TVA. “A figure that sends shivers down your spine,” wrote the union in a communication sent to its members during the weekend.
With the exception of the Montreal station, the union notes that the Sherbrooke station is the one that will be the most devastated with 59 cuts, which represents 80% of the workforce.
The union adds that Rimouski (22 positions) and Saguenay (17) follow with 75% of resources which will be laid off. In Trois-Rivières, 25 people received an end of employment letter, or 70% of its artisans.
In Quebec, 8 employees are targeted, the equivalent of 6% of the workforce.
In its memo sent to employees on Sunday, the union maintains that “the employer announced that it was ending internal production in favor of subcontracting, which contravenes the collective agreement ratified with the union in October 2018” .
The TVA employees’ union was convened at the weekend for a general council in Mauricie, where nearly 50 delegates, representatives and guests from all stations took part. The goal of this gathering was to take the pulse of each of the regions affected by job cuts and to discuss strategies to save as many jobs as possible.
