Renaud-bray closes Laurier Québec store during year-long strike
Renaud-bray closed its Laurier Québec branch on May 1 while 60 employees at the store and another Québec City location had been on strike for more than a year. The branch had been open only from Wednesday to Saturday and was operating with management staff only before the shutdown.
Laurier Québec closure
Jimmy Demers, the union president, said the workers were shocked by the closure and denounced it as a shameless act. He said, “Nous sommes sous le choc, mais nous ne nous laisserons pas abattre. Surtout pas par un être aussi sans scrupule que Blaise Renaud. Il n’y a pas de mots pour décrire un tel manque de sensibilité envers ses employés. Un geste abject”.
The strike involved 60 employees at the Laurier Québec and Galeries de la Capitale stores. They were seeking better working conditions, and wages remained at the center of the dispute.
Wages and stalled talks
The union wanted a starting wage set at $1 above the minimum wage, which had reached $16.60 in Quebec. Renaud-Bray had proposed a raise of only 15 cents, and 93% of the strikers rejected the latest offers in July. Negotiations have been at an impasse since then.
Workers launched a boycott of the Laurier Québec store in early November under the banner Renaud-Bray n’a pas de cœur, j’achète ailleurs. The closure came after the company had already permanently closed its Galeries de la Capitale store in the fall.
Renaud-Bray and Archambault
The dispute comes as Renaud-Bray has been accelerating the conversion of Archambault stores to its banner across Quebec. The company replaced the sign at the Place Ste-Foy store in mid-January, after a similar conversion a few months earlier in the Lebourgneuf area. The Galeries de la Capitale store closed a few weeks after that Lebourgneuf conversion.
Caroline Senneville said, “Renaud-Bray aura eu le culot de choisir le 1er mai pour poser le geste le plus antisyndical qui soit: celui de tenter d’anéantir toute velléité de ses employé-es d’exiger un meilleur sort que le salaire minimum. Où est le ministre du Travail quand on bafoue de façon aussi flagrante les droits des travailleuses et des travailleurs ?”
Renaud-Bray is due before the Tribunal administratif du travail on May 14 over accusations, brought by the CSN, that it violated several provisions of the Labour Code when it announced the closure of the Galeries de la Capitale store in October without notice.
