Labour relations in Québec have been generally stable over the last decade. Employers and unions are collaborating to stimulate the economy and, as a result, there are very few strikes and wage settlements are fair.
In 2016, 38.6% of workers in Québec were unionized. However, the unionization rate for the private sector was 23.6% in 2016. 84% of unionized workers in Québec work in the public sector, even though there are three times as many private sector workers as there are public sector workers.1
From 2014 to 2016, 374 strikes or lockouts occurred in Québec, public and private sectors combined. This means there are on average 124 incidents per year. This is significantly higher than in the period from 2011 to 2013 where there where there was an average of 62 strikes per year. However, the average is significantly higher due to the large number of work stoppages that occurred in 2015 related to the provincial government's cuts. In 2015, there were 404,069 unionized workers involved in work stoppages. In 2016 there were only 34,305 unionized workers involved in work stoppages.2
Footnotes
1 Source: Institut de la statistique Québec, Institut de la statistique Québec, Annuaire Québécois des statistiques du travail (2006-2016)
2 Source: Government of Canada
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