At the end of a sometimes confused, sometimes tense virtual gathering Wednesday night, members of the Quebec Writers’ Union (UNEQ) rejected their union’s proposal that all writers be required to pay a dues. However, they agreed to the sale of the writers’ house, albeit by a very slim majority.
It wasn’t until just after 10 p.m., after nearly five hours of debate, that the authors in attendance were finally able to begin voting on the first resolution, which dealt with the thorny issue of union dues and caused a lot of ink in the last few months. The electronic vote was marked by several failures that caused confusion. On a few occasions, members even asked for the meeting to be adjourned, which protracted, leading to a flare-up of tensions.
The results finally became known at the very end of the evening. The UNEQ project, which aimed to collect contributions for all publishing deals in Quebec, was rejected by nearly 56% of voters.
A historically high number of members spoke at this meeting. At the opening, around 550 of them were to be online. However, as the evening progressed, several left the gathering, which ended just before midnight.
In addition, the authors present also had to decide the fate of the Maison des Ecrivains. Ultimately, 189 participants accepted UNEQ to liquidate its historic headquarters, while 175 opposed it. Some members complained that a technical problem prevented them from voting and questioned the legitimacy of the process. However, the house will not officially launch until September 2024. The syndicate has given itself 18 months to find a new buyer who pledges to keep a literary vocation for the place.
The end of a long saga?
Remember that this Extraordinary General Assembly became necessary after UNEQ reversed its decision to charge a contribution of 2.5% on the income of its members and 5% on its non-members. This decision, made at a first general meeting in June, caused outrage in the literary world. Many criticized UNEQ for acting covertly when barely 46 people took part in the vote, far fewer than the 1,600 members UNEQ had at the time.
Amid the turmoil, UNEQ backtracked at the end of December when it turned out that the vote on contributions didn’t even appear on the agenda members had previously been given.
Despite their mea culpa, the union was not at the end of its troubles. In January he found himself in the hot seat again, this time due to the unilateral decision of his board of directors to sell his historic headquarters, the Maison des écrivains. UNEQ considered the sale of the house to be necessary, particularly because of the increased maintenance costs. But former UNEQ administrators and several well-known authors regretted it and expressed their attachment to this flagship building on Saint-Louis-Platz, which serves not only as UNEQ’s headquarters, but also as a place for the promotion of literature.
Faced with pressure, UNEQ had reversed course and accepted that the future of the House of Writers would be put to the vote at the Extraordinary General Assembly. But UNEQ has not fundamentally changed its position either on the issue of the sale of the headquarters or on the issue of membership fees.
Nevertheless, on Wednesday it proposed to its members to separate from the House of Writers. However, the consortium undertook to observe a moratorium of one and a half years before the start of the sales process. Time to find a new buyer committed to the house’s literary mission.
With regard to union dues, UNEQ has set up a committee to set the level of future dues. But after deliberation, the proposal remained the same as adopted in June: 2.5% for members and 5% for non-members.
Both the decision to sell the house and the levy were justified by UNEQ with the recent reform of artist status. In particular, the new law obliges the union to negotiate minimum conditions for authors with publishers’ associations. A real revolution in the publishing world. However, to fulfill its new mission, UNEQ said it needed new revenue, hence the desire to sell the house and collect contributions.