Canadian Lawyer InHouse

29 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY 2017 opinions and services that provincial lawyers provide their employer/client with on a daily basis — everything from policy development and legislative drafting to advisory and legal services and litigation — puts them in an awkward negotiating position. "They don't want to bargain working conditions with their employer while giving legal opinions to their client that might displease them," she says. "It's not a normal relationship." The desire to change their current ne - gotiation process — not wage parity — be- came the main demand and rallying cry for LANEQ members after their collective agreement expired in March 2015. The government's refusal to grant that right in more than 18 bargaining sessions and five meetings with a mediator resulted in an impasse. It also resulted in the rejec - tions of five government offers and counter- offers, and ultimately an 84-per-cent vote in favour of the strike by LANEQ members on Oct. 12, 2016. "The signal from our members is clear," the union's president, Jean Denis, wrote in a statement following the vote. "The strike has become the only way to bring (govern - ment) back to the negotiating table." In interviews, union officials acknowl- edged that the timing of the strike was part of a strategy aimed at pressuring the gov- ernment by paralyzing the preparation of legislation during the busy fall session when dozens of measures were on the books. As it turned out, however, the strike was neither easy nor successful for LANEQ's members. Regrouped mostly in Quebec City and Montreal, they held several dem - onstrations in front of government build- ings. In January, at their fourth general assembly meeting since the summer, the striking lawyers voted to reject the gov- ernment's final take-it-or-leave-it offer by a whopping 97 per cent. Sixty-three per cent also voted to continue the strike even though the LANEQ had entirely depleted its $8-million war chest (half of it loans that are being repaid through an already-activat - ed increase in union dues to three per cent from 0.75 per cent of members' salaries) and strike pay was reduced to zero from a high of 60 per cent of members' weekly salaries at the start of the strike. Some senior voices in Quebec's legal community spoke out in favour of the strik - ing lawyers. In addition to the president of the Quebec Bar, the managing partners of eight major Quebec law firms called for a negotiated settlement to the strike in an open letter to Couillard in late February. "We want to officially express our sup - port to our government colleagues and reiterate the importance of their role and function within government," wrote the principals of Langlois lawyers, Robinson Sheppard Shapiro, Blake Cassels & Gray - don LLP, Jolicœur Lacasse Avocats, Ther- rien Couture avocats, Dentons Canada, Du- fresne Hébert Comeau and BCF. "Our professional activities require us to work regularly with (them) in various spheres of activity. We would like to see their tremendous competence, intellectual rigour and unwavering loyalty to the proper func - tioning of the state's business recognized." A week later, the government tabled its back-to-work legislation. The special law notably imposed a 105-day negotiating and mediation period on both sides. If they fail to reach an agreement, the government will impose the first and lowest of the formal of - fers it made — a 5.25-per-cent increase over five years. According to one Quebec City labour lawyer, the failure of government lawyers to win widespread public support for their cause enabled the government to bludgeon them back to work. "Government lawyers are relatively small in number and they work in obscurity," says Laval Dallaire, a partner in the Quebec City firm of Gagné Letarte avocats and a specialist in the negotiation of collective agreements. Unlike the nearly 50,000 Quebec nurses who were similarly forced back to work af - ter an illegal strike in 1999 — but who en- joyed widespread public support for their wage demands, which convinced the Parti Québécois government of former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard to forego fines and reach a higher-paying settlement — Dallaire said the lawyers were unable to garner sympathy for the negotiation pro - cess discrepancies with Crown attorneys. "It was really quite astute on the lawyers' part, because it looked like their battle was based on principle rather than money," he says. "But if you don't have public support for your position or are able to distinguish yourself from comparable groups, you will be dealt with according to the salary models that governments build with the help of spe - cialists, and that their negotiators stick to." For his part, Desroches-Lapointe held out little hope for a negotiated settlement before the deadline. "The outcome is already dictated by law, so the government has little incentive to be generous," he says. That back-to-work legislation, he added, "clearly states" the mediator cannot address nor does he have jurisdiction over the crucial issue of the negotiation process. "The government is holding the big end of the bat — no, the whole bat," says Desroches-Lapointe. He says the LANEQ is still hoping for positive outcomes to a legal challenge it launched against the government's back- to-work law, as well as an action filed with Quebec's labour relations board, accusing the government of bargaining in bad faith. One positive thing to come out of the strike, says Desroches-Lapointe, is the strong sense of solidarity that was forged among lawyers. That has also provided some solace, he adds, to the difficulties many members have expressed about returning to the rela - tive anonymity of their workplaces within the government apparatus. "It's really frus- trating for our people to carry on with all the professionalism that is required after everything that's been said and done — but we can't do otherwise," says Desroches- Lapointe. "We remain among the lowest- paid lawyers in the country. Being in the spotlight, however, has raised our profile and helped people to understand the really important and rewarding work we do." IH Our work is done mostly in the shadows and always in confidentiality and we don't ask for or get the public merit we deserve. FRANÇOIS DESROCHES-LAPOINTE

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