Major agreement reached in Quebec construction industry

Detours will be common on the Bonaventure Highway (A-10) until the end of the year as a series of construction projects are planned.

A second major agreement has been reached to renew collective agreements in the construction industry from 2025 to 2029, this time in the civil engineering and roads sector.

Negotiations in the construction industry concerned some 200,000 workers across Quebec, with four collective agreements needing to be negotiated for each of the industry’s sub-sectors.

This second agreement was reached between the employers' association for the civil engineering and roadworks sector, the Association des constructeurs de routes et grands travaux du Québec, and the Alliance syndicale, which brings together five construction unions.

The wage increases agreed upon are eight per cent in 2025, five per cent in 2026, five per cent in 2027 and four per cent in 2028.

Last week, a first agreement was reached between the Alliance syndicale and the Association de la construction du Québec, for the industrial, institutional and commercial sectors.

However, all the agreements in principle, are subject to a vote by the members of the union organizations and the member companies of the employer associations.

One last sector of the industry remains to be settled: residential construction.

The partial agreements concern the so-called sector clauses only, but in the case of the construction industry, the sectorial clauses include wage increases.

The parties will also have to negotiate clauses specific to the construction trades.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 12, 2025.