Quebec’s five residential construction unions have a strike mandate

A worker walks in a construction site in Montreal. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press)

The threat of a strike hangs over the residential construction sector, as the Alliance syndicale and employers’ association have still not reached an agreement, unlike the other three sectors of the industry.

The workers, members of the five unions that make up the Alliance syndicale, have just voted in favour of a mandate for an unlimited general strike.

They warn that they “will not hesitate to use it if it proves to be the most effective means of ensuring that residential construction workers recover their lost purchasing power.”

The Alliance syndicale is urging the Association des professionnels de la construction et de l’habitation du Québec (APCHQ) to conduct intensive negotiations between now and 9 a.m. on May 21. If those fail, “all means of pressure will be considered by the Alliance syndicale, including strike action.”

In an interview on Friday, Alliance spokesperson Alexandre Ricard said that the Alliance would reassess the situation to see if sufficient progress had been made by the deadline, but the five unions were ready just in case.

The Alliance brings together all the unions in the industry, in descending order of importance: the FTQ-Construction, the Syndicat québécois de la construction, the Conseil provincial du Québec des métiers de la construction (International), the CSD-Construction and the CSN-Construction.

The other three sectors of the industry have already settled their collective agreements for 2025 to 2029, even before the collective agreements expire on April 30. These are the industrial sector, civil engineering and roads, and the institutional and commercial sectors.

In all cases, it is the same Alliance syndicale that is negotiating, but with a different employers’ association for each sector.

The agreement between the Alliance syndicale and the other employer associations provides for wage increases of 8 per cent in 2025, 5 per cent in 2026, 5 per cent in 2027 and 4 per cent in 2028.

To keep workers

When told that the residential construction sector is not doing as well as other construction sectors and that there is a shortage of housing, Richard retorted: “We agree that now is not the time for a strike; now is the time to have a signed agreement and to respect our workers.”

“If we want to achieve our housing objectives, which we have set for ourselves in the residential sector, we have to make sure that we have a competent workforce that stays in the sector,” he said.

He pointed out that there are many factors other than wages that have driven up construction costs in the residential sector: the rising cost of materials, the cost of land, property taxes, and the structure of the industry, which is unique to Quebec, made up of small businesses that do a lot of subcontracting, so with several profit margins that add up.

He also called for the same conditions to be offered to workers in the residential sector to avoid an exodus to other construction sectors, where they would be better paid.

APCHQ response

The APCHQ said it was ready to negotiate actively in order to avoid a strike.

“We were all present at the Ministry of Labour yesterday (Thursday) and we remained available all day. This is still the case today (Friday). We remain fully committed to the process and favour a negotiated settlement in order to avoid a strike with major consequences for the Quebec economy. We are open to intensifying discussions over the next few hours and also this weekend.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French May 16, 2025.

Lia Lévesque, The Canadian Press