The date of March 29, 2023 will be a historic date for the Quebec literary community, when a small majority of voting members of the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers (UNEQ) voted against the collection of union dues, but in favor of the sale of the Writers’ House.
Thanks to the controversial levies, the association wanted to fulfill an eminently union role, with the primary mandate of negotiating collective agreements with publishers, as provided for in the new Status of the Artist Act.
Around 5:30 p.m., more than 550 members gathered on Zoom, “unheard of” for a UNEQ assembly. The two thorny issues were put to the vote late Wednesday. Technical problems, cacophony, impatience: the exchanges, which La Presse was able to attend in part, were agitated to say the least, the words “nursery” and “capernaum” having been spoken a few times.
The dues proposed by UNEQ, i.e. 2.5% of income for members and 5% for non-members, have fueled controversy since last December. At the start of the meeting, the director general, Laurent Dubois, argued at length that this new source of income was vital to carry out the negotiations and overcome a “structural deficit”, financed by reserves which are melting from year to year.
56% (248) of members rejected the dues proposal, while 40% (178) supported it. This democratic choice reverses the result of an assembly held last June, canceled due to a “procedural error”.
At the end of a second proposal, the board of directors received the mandate to sell the House of Writers. The fight was fierce: 189 members voted in favor while 175 opposed. According to an amendment, the UNEQ will however have to observe a moratorium of 18 months so that “interested persons and groups [have] the possibility of submitting acquisition projects whose mission is to promote literature or the profession of writer and ‘writer’.
The vote on the sale went without any debate due to a quick “preliminary question”. UNEQ has made the move of its head office, Carré Saint-Louis, one of the “highlights” of its 2023-2025 action plan, a decision that has triggered an outcry in the literary community.
Over the course of the evening, carelessly open mikes made it possible to hear many grunts and swear words among the hundreds of registered members.
According to the interventions, some participants challenged the choice of trade unionist Jacques Létourneau, former president of the CSN, to lead the assembly, while the UNEQ does not exclude affiliating with the central trade union. Others would have liked Suzanne Aubry to be heard more on the microphone in her capacity as president. Instead, general manager Laurent Dubois answered questions.
The polling firm mandated by UNEQ, SimpleSondage, also took it for the cold. Numerous connection errors undermined the pace of the assembly, to the great dismay of a president whose patience was praised on several occasions. It was perhaps the “504 gateway time-out” error message that ended up being the most debated.
It remains to be seen how the UNEQ will be able to fulfill its union mission without contributions from its members. At 11:50 p.m. Wednesday, the end of the meeting did not mean the end of the debates.
