Several demonstrations and two more strike mandates at Hydro-Québec

Hydro Quebec - FILE PHOTO (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

The common front of three of Hydro-Québec’s employee unions held demonstrations at noon on Thursday in several Quebec cities, while two other unions, a fifth and a sixth, have just given themselves strike mandates.

Rallies by the common front are planned at the company’s head office in downtown Montreal, as well as in front of Hydro-Québec offices in Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, Rouyn-Noranda, Chicoutimi, Saint-Jérôme, Baie-Comeau, Gatineau, Rimouski, Saint-Bruno, Saint-Hyacinthe, Laval, Valleyfield and Joliette.

The fifth and sixth strike mandates to be added are those of the Syndicat des employés de métier, whose members voted 99.3 per cent in favour of a pressure tactics mandate that could go as far as an unlimited general strike, and of the Syndicat des technologues, whose members voted 98.9 per cent in favour of this mandate.

Last November, four other locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated to the QFL, had already adopted strike mandates. Three of them had voted in favour of a five-day strike mandate and the other in favour of a pressure tactics mandate that could go as far as an unlimited general strike.

These were the Syndicat des spécialistes et professionnels, which has 5,430 members, the Syndicat des employés de techniques professionnelles et de bureau, which has 2,300 members, the Syndicat des employés de réseau, which has 195 members, and the Syndicat des infirmières et infirmiers de chantier, which has around 50 members.

Negotiations with the employer have been going on for over a year. They cover wages, pensions and teleworking.

When contacted during a previous demonstration by its unions, the state-owned company did not wish to comment on the content of the negotiations.

“Hydro-Québec is putting all the necessary effort into the discussions under way with our union partners and is therefore confident of reaching agreements,” it said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 24, 2025.