Today, the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) is revealing the preliminary results of the construction industry’s 15th union election, which took place by mail June 1–20, 2020. The finalized, detailed results will be released in August, as workers have until July 22 to contest the notification of confirmation of allegiance sent to them.
Diane Lemieux, CEO of the CCQ, is satisfied with how the election went. “The 2020 union election has gone very smoothly so far, in spite of the exceptional situation related to COVID-19. The objective is for construction workers to be able to make their choice freely and clearly.”
Following the counting of the 30,292 ballots received, here is the new union representativeness that will apply starting September 1:
| Representative association | Preliminary representativeness | Official representativeness (2016) | Change |
| Centrale des syndicats démocratiques (CSD Construction) |
8.764% |
10.365% |
-1.601% |
| Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN-Construction) |
6.099% |
6.041% | +0.058% |
| Conseil provincial du Québec des métiers de la construction (International) | 23.145% |
23.618% |
-0.473% |
| Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ-Construction) |
43.019% |
43.860% |
-0.841% |
| Syndicat québécois de la construction (SQC) |
18.973% |
16.115% |
+2.858% |
Participation
There were 192,360 workers eligible to choose their union allegiance, which will be in effect for the next four years.
Out of this number, 127,965 individuals were considered to have “voting status.” This status means that their votes were used to calculate union representativeness.
The overall participation rate was 15.75%, compared to 18.59% in 2016.
The participation rate of those with voting status was 17.43%. This was a lower proportion than for the 2016 election, which had a 20.17% participation rate.
It should be noted that workers who did not exercise their right to vote had their union allegiance in effect at the time of the election automatically renewed for the four next years. This is called “presumption of allegiance.”