JEAN GERIN-LAJOIE

(Québec & Pembroke 1948) (16 March 1928 - July 2020)

Gérin-Lajoie served as Steelworkers Quebec Director from 1965 to 1981 and Quebec Federation of Labour Vice-President from 1959 to 1981. His union activism began as a 19-year-old worker at Montreal Cottons in Valleyfield, Que. Gérin-Lajoie attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1948 and earned a PhD in economics from McGill University.

“He greatly helped to build and bring structure to our union, the labour movement and the world of work as a whole. He has left us an immense legacy,” said USW Quebec Director Dominic Lemieux.

“The Steelworkers union is extremely privileged to have been able to count on a man of such great skill and humanity over so many years,” Lemieux said.

For more than two decades, Gérin-Lajoie was the labour movement’s lead representative on a high-profile council that advised the Quebec government on labour relations policy. He contributed to legislation introduced by five different governments, including Quebec’s first meaningful labour laws, the creation of its labour board, implementation of a minimum wage law, anti-discrimination legislation, occupational health and safety legislation.