The Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (French: Centrale des syndicats démocratiques or CSD) is a national trade union centre in Quebec formed on 8 June 1972 in response to a split within the Confederation of National Trade Unions Confédération des syndicats nationaux, CSN). It is the smallest of the four labour centres in Quebec, with about 4% (62,770 members) of the union membership in the province.
The split was led by dissident members of the CSN executive Paul-Émile Dalpé, Jacques Dion and Amédée Daigle, referred to as the "Three Ds", who said they wanted a more democratic union body and one which would be politically neutral, as distinct from the political militancy of the CSN. Paul-Émile Dalpé was the first president of the CSD, Dion was treasurer and Daigle was director of services. Jean-Paul Hétu was vice-president and Réal Labelle was secretary.
Dalpé was succeeded as president by Jean-Paul Hétu who held office until 1989, when Claude Gingras became president.
Famous quotes containing the words congress, democratic, trade and/or unions:
“What have Massachusetts and the North sent a few sane representatives to Congress for, of late years?... All their speeches put together and boiled down ... do not match for manly directness and force, and for simple truth, the few casual remarks of crazy John Brown on the floor of the Harper’s Ferry engine-house,—that man whom you are about to hang, to send to the other world, though not to represent you there.”
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