The negotiations stalled with Ottawa

File Photo, Didier Debusschère
Eight hundred employees have been laid off at the shipyard Davie in Lévis, at the end of 2017, in the wake of the conclusion of the contract for the tanker Asterix, new pride of the royal canadian Navy. In the photo, the Asterix at chantier Davie in may 2016.

Jean-Luc Lavallée

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 00:19

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Tuesday, February 20, 2018 00:19

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A month after the visit of Justin Trudeau in Quebec city, the impatience winning over employees and suppliers to the shipyard Davie who are still waiting for the contract so long waited for the icebreakers of the coast Guard.

Negotiations between Ottawa and the Davie, announced by the prime minister on the 18th of January, have been slow to materialize. The more time that passes, the more the skilled workforce, risk of leaving the ship lévisien. The same scenario occurs also at the sub-contractors of the shipyard, who are no longer able to wait.

According to Pierre Drapeau, spokesman for the Association of suppliers to the Shipyard Davie, 770 workers from 243 suppliers who have already lost their jobs in 10 regions of Quebec, in addition to the 800 employees of the Davie laid off at the end of the year 2017.

“A month later, we’re going to the information, and I am obliged to communicate to our members that there is no progress. It is extremely damaging. It creates a lot of discontent in the region. It is dependent on the outcome of these negotiations there in order to hope to re-engage employees “, he confided.

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Contacted by The Newspaper yesterday, the spokesperson of the Shipyard Davie, Frédérik Boisvert, refrained from commenting on the ongoing negotiations.

He reminded us, however, that the company lévis is working hard, since 2016, in order to boost its project Resolute for the conversion of four ice-breakers to meet the operational needs of the interim in the coast Guard.

Duclos does not advance

Asked during a media scrum in Quebec city, yesterday, the federal minister Jean-Yves Duclos has failed to put forward a timetable for the conclusion of the negotiations, merely repeating that ” these things must be done as quickly as possible “.

Mr. Duclos said that Ottawa had “two goals” in mind with the negotiations : the contract for four icebreakers, but also to the development of a relationship “long-term” win-win for both entities.

The relationship between Davie and the federal government has been “scratched over the years,” he observed. “We need to go back on a better basis, and this is what I insist “.