THE LEGACY OF THE PARTNERSHIP IN QUEBEC: ASHES OR EMBERS? CASE STUDY

Abstract

Most firm level union-management partnerships have vanished through time. Scholars’ interest for
this topic seems to have followed the same path. We shed new light on the debate around partnership by studying two cases in Quebec. We searched for evidence of enduring traces of partnership
(embers) or absence of any trace (ashes). We focus on three mechanisms of governance: relations
habilitation; participation to the improvement of the production process, and innovation in industrial relations. The last, according to data from multiple sources, is the most important and is still in
place. More specifically, ongoing collective bargaining and efforts to solve together divergences and
grievances are the most relevant persistent practices