A decision by the Transport Commission of Quebec will require owner-operators in the province to join one of three union-affiliated associations
or face having their operating permits revoked.
In a ruling on Dec. 7, the commission said arm's-length affiliates of the Syndicats des Metallos/Cooperative des Camionneurs, the Centrale des Syndicats Democratique, and the Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux have met membership targets that will allow them to represent owner-operators on the Forum des Intervenants de l'Industrie du Camionnage General, established by the province with the passage of Bill 135 last year. It was created in part to outline the parameters of a formal business contract between trucking companies and owner-operators.
The law requires the associations to collectively have 50 percent plus one of the province's owner-operators as members. If they attain their target, owner-operators not currently associated with any one of the groups will have to select and join one or risk losing their operating authority.
The associations won by the thinnest of margins: out of the 5237 owner-operators registered with the CTQ, the total represented by the three groups is 50.9%. The parties involved have until Jan. 7 to appeal the decision.
The involvement of the labor groups has left trucking companies wondering whether independent owner-operators will soon be carrying union cards.
Won't happen, says Mario Sabourin, spokesperson for the Assn. Professionnelle des Camionneurs et Camionneuses du Quebec, affiliated with Metallos. "We don't go to the forum table with our arsenal of negotiators and collective agreements," he explained in an interview with Transport Routier earlier this year. "The APCCQ may be (affiliated with a union), but it remains an independent organization, a true association."
Forum president Paul-Émile Thellend agreed. "The associations have no authority to unionize their members," he said.