Background

The Syndicat québécois des employées et employés de service, section locale 298 (FTQ) began operating on April 16, 1946, when a group of 12 housekeeping employees founded the Building Service Employees Union. That same year, they were joined by workers at a hospital. By 1960, the Union represented 4000 members.

In 1966, the Union continued to expand by recruiting office workers. It was so successful recruiting workers in hospitals and private centres that, in 1969, social affairs (health and social services) sector workers made up most of its members. The Union changed its name to the Union des employés de service, local 298 (FTQ).

In the early 1970s, school board employees began joining the Union. Gradually, workers in the restaurant, hotel, school transportation, paratransit and industrial sectors began joining as well.

At our 1993 Convention, we again changed our name to take into account our female membership and the trend toward francization. We officially became the Syndicat québécois des employées et employés de service, section locale 298 (FTQ).

At our May 2000 Convention we became more democratic. Since then, each base unit has been represented on the General Council, the Union’s decision-making body between Conventions. The General Council is made up of up to 300 members mandated to represent our Union’s 25 000 members.

In 2003 a Liberal government was elected. A series of anti-union laws were enacted under a gag order. In particular, the infamous Bill 30 respecting the merger of bargaining units in the health and social services sector had serious negative effects on the SQEES-298 (FTQ). Since then, we have worked hard and we are proud to have regained any ground we lost. Today our organization is in perfect health and more effective than ever!