Reflecting on the 2023 Common Front strikes with Felix Fuchs

Welcome to Metropolis, a populist pulse on Montréal news.

Today’s guest is Felix Fuchs, a part-time professor at Dawson, Concordia, and McGill as well as a proud member of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), specifically the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ). Kalden and Felix discuss the Common Front strikes, North America's largest strike action. At their height, the strikes involved more than half a million workers across Quebec's public. Currently, unions have taken the agreements back to their membership to be voted on.

Felix discusses the concessions and gains made in these negotiations. One of the specific stipulations by the unions was that contracts remain at three-year intervals. The final agreement, in principle, lays out a contract over five years. Felix says this represents the kind of concession the unions made to get other demands met.

Felix shares the history of standard front strikes with the show. He recalls the framing of the strikes by Marcel Pepin, a Québecois trade unionist, who envisioned the first iteration of the common front not just as a tool to improve workplace conditions and wages but to agitate for broader societal improvements. Similarly, Felix believes that the common front's mass mobilization represents a similar opportunity in our times. Especially given the weight of the cost of living crisis compounding with rising inflation.

On Hello, Good Byline Local 514, journalist Savanna Craig guides a discussion about the optics of "disruptive" protests and its many iterations.

Tune in for these pertinent reflections on Montréal organizing and more on Metropolis.