ACADEMIA | Letters

©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective

Control of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace

Melanie Dufour-Poirier, Francine D'Ortun

This brief article sheds light on a recent experiment with ©Trans-faire, a training
mechanism for a union peer support network’s peer helpers. It is part of a longitudinal
research program on the Social Stewards Network of the Fédération des travailleurs et des
travailleuses du Québec (FTQ [Quebec Federation of Labour]) we have been conducting for
over 10 years in which we have been studying the innovative actions taken by social stewards
to combat psychological injuries in the workplace and humanize working environments.
Specifically, in the middle of the COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic, we asked social stewards to
participate in 2 discussion groups (n=50) and semi-structured interviews (n=13) conducted
from June 19 to July 2, 2020. Our data collection enabled us to identify the motivations,
strategies and subjects of the self-training they undertook, in addition to the challenges
complicating their interventions, within the historic and unprecedented context that resulted
in the creation of this new peer-to-peer training mechanism and at the same time shook up
this particular network’s institutional training paradigm.
For those not familiar with it, the FTQ, the largest union organization in Québec, together
with the philanthropic organization Centraide, created the Social Stewards Network in 1983.
Social stewards provide support for their colleagues in distress, whatever their occupation,
age, gender or experience, on the basis of a relationship of equals. They advocate an
approach involving active listening and independent, confidential peer-to-peer mutual
assistance available at any time. Social stewards define themselves as agents of support and
recovery who listen to their coworkers and try to cultivate close relationships of trust with
them. Such mutual assistance is not intended to be professional; far from acting as a
substitute for the latter, its aim is to provide active listening by a fellow worker and helpful
referrals to resources outside the workplace.

Academia Letters, June 2022 ©2022 by the authors – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Melanie Dufour-Poirier, melanie.dufour-poirier@umontreal.ca

Citation: Dufour-Poirier, M., D'Ortun, F. (2022). ©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective Control
of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace. Academia Letters, Article 5670.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL5670

1
 Accordingly, it was our assumption in the summer of 2020 that the C-19 pandemic and
the public health measures accompanying it had disrupted the community support provided
by social stewards in workplace settings, as well as created specific requirements in terms of
training for them. On one hand, the public health crisis had exacerbated and altered the
problems social stewards were already familiar with (e.g., porosity of working time and
reconciliation of work and family life or life outside of work) that were driven by the
widespread recourse to telework. On the other, the crisis had resulted in a fundamental
transformation of the role and the conditions, in proximity with others, under which social
stewards had operated since the founding of the Network.
We therefore sought to document social stewards’ capacity for action among their peers
in a group of situations, especially in regard to their ability to adapt and innovate in the face
of the upheavals related to the pandemic. We elicited information on their training
requirements given the very turbulent context and closely examined their motivations for
learning on their own as well as the topics dealt with. It should be understood that, until
March 2020, social stewards benefited from classroom training and, as needed, customized
support in order to fulfill their roles. The “in person” instruction provided by the Social
Stewards Network comprised an initial 3-day training session for its members. It was and
still is designed to develop their active listening skills, acquaint them with the resources to
which they can direct their colleagues when requested, and give guidance about how they
can prevent problems. Workshops (e.g., on violence in workplace settings, social and
political action, union prevention work, tools for resolving interpersonal conflicts,
psychological harassment) were also available to enhance that training. As a general rule,
day-long sessions on various topics were held several times each year, which ended with an
annual conference. In the summer of 2020, the Social Stewards Network still provided initial
and ongoing training sessions but, due to the public health measures in effect, remotely,
using Zoom. Nonetheless, the Social Stewards Network’s preferred instructional method
remained training provided by others.
In theory, the social stewards’ approach and roles (active listening, peer-to-peer mutual
assistance, acting as sentinels in their workplace settings, guidance or referral to the
appropriate resources, implementing follow-ups) remained the same. In practice, however,
our data revealed that the pandemic had actually compromised their capacity for actions on
behalf of workers (some of whom were affected by the expansion of telework, or already
experiencing problems before C-19 and were seeing their difficulties increase on a daily
basis) due to social distancing, scarcity of resources and, on the part of some, psychological

Academia Letters, June 2022 ©2022 by the authors – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Melanie Dufour-Poirier, melanie.dufour-poirier@umontreal.ca

Citation: Dufour-Poirier, M., D'Ortun, F. (2022). ©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective Control
of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace. Academia Letters, Article 5670.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL5670

2
distress (loss of meaning, uncertainty, and loneliness). While motivated to find solutions in
the face of such hurdles, the social stewards found themselves isolated and lacking resources.
The majority of them nevertheless demonstrated self-sufficiency, resilience and
resourcefulness in ensuring to meet their training needs—those not satisfied by the
Network’s usual program—on their own, through self-training. Spurred on by this C-19
experience, social stewards soon recognized that self-training had the advantage of enabling
them to quickly gain knowledge that allowed them to adapt to an unstable and changing
environment in order to continue in their role as peer helpers, putting the best of their skills
and expertise into action in the field.
Some of the reasons behind self-training proved to be personal, while others were
professional. The personal reasons included: feeling myself competent and useful (self-
effectiveness); improving my self-confidence; and knowing myself better. The professional
reasons we identified were: using Zoom; being up to date on information concerning C-19
and public health measures; preventing psychosocial risks in the workplace; providing more
upstream interventions in respect to the causes behind increased occupational stress;
knowing about the roles and responsibilities of other stewards (i.e., regular union stewards
and health and safety stewards) to better leverage the synergies between the latter to play my
role as a social steward more effectively; deepening my understanding of mental health
issues and optimizing my ability to provide help—quickly—when asked for assistance
(regarding depression, conjugal violence, addiction, etc.); updating my list of the
Referencesand resources that are available in light of the pandemic-related lockdowns and
diversifying them if need be (e.g., World Health Organization); and so on. The social
stewards were able to institute a wide variety of initiatives focused on maintaining their
existing knowledge, expertise and soft skills as well as developing further insights and new
modi operandi. All these efforts stemmed from the concern of social stewards to preserve,
almost completely, their capacity to provide support for their unionized peers as quickly as
possible and, most importantly, in a different way, in respect to a wide range of issues (e.g.,
domestic violence; difficulties in reconciling roles at work and their spillover into the
domestic sphere; feeling of isolation and loss of belonging to a workplace; mental health
problems; substance abuse and relapse; loss of earnings, indebtedness and food insecurity).
Still more fundamentally, such self-training supported the thinking of a number of social
stewards as to the importance of alleviating psychological injuries in the workplace through
collective, upstream intervention in respect to their causes, thereupon underscoring the
pressing need for them to act as true agents of change and prevention.

Academia Letters, June 2022 ©2022 by the authors – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Melanie Dufour-Poirier, melanie.dufour-poirier@umontreal.ca

Citation: Dufour-Poirier, M., D'Ortun, F. (2022). ©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective Control
of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace. Academia Letters, Article 5670.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL5670

3
 In light of these many observations, a peer-to-peer sharing protocol was created: ©Trans-
faire [a play on the French words for “transfer” and “to do”]. This mechanism enables social
stewards who have voluntarily chosen to do so to describe their experiences to their
colleagues, as well as document and present what they have learned on their own, the
conditions that motivated them and how they set about learning what they did, the obstacles
encountered and the solutions put forward (Dufour-Poirier and D’Ortun, 2021). The protocol
boosts collective intelligence through the sharing of expertise and the increased recognition
of one’s own learning and that of other peer helpers; promotes social stewards taking agency
over their training (self-assessment of needs, autonomy); fosters relationships of trust among
peer helpers; and encourages social stewards to share information about the actual problems
they have experienced and resolved in the field.
Social stewards put the importance of local unionism in workplace settings back in the
forefront. They also confirm the strikingly current need to take collective control not only in
the handling of psychological injuries in the workplace, but also of the solutions intended to
alleviate their upstream causes. Work-related psychological injury is an epiphenomenon of
a global social crisis (De Kersabiec, 2016; Chaignot Delage and Dejours, 2017; ILO, 2019;
2016) that the C-19 pandemic has only exacerbated. Its resolution urgently calls for the
implementation of concerted actions on the part of all workplace actors (social stewards
obviously included). The same applies in respect to the legitimacy of all such actors, not to
mention the relevance of the labour organizations overseeing them—proactive and
coordinated actions are essential.
Besides providing real-time responses to unforeseen problems that may crop up when
carrying out their duties as social stewards, ©Trans-faire enhances workers’ power to act on
their own and contributes to the recognition of the key role of such peer helpers in
humanizing workplace settings. The ©Trans-faire mechanism comes within the general
perspective of our longitudinal research program, which aims to mitigate the sources of the
acute dysfunctions and imbalances stemming from work itself as well as make solutions for
them issues of public health, industrial democracy and social justice.

References
Chaignot Delage, N. and Dejours, C., eds. (2017). Clinique du travail et évolutions du
droit. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Academia Letters, June 2022 ©2022 by the authors – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Melanie Dufour-Poirier, melanie.dufour-poirier@umontreal.ca

Citation: Dufour-Poirier, M., D'Ortun, F. (2022). ©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective Control
of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace. Academia Letters, Article 5670.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL5670

4
Dufour-Poirier, M. and D’Ortun, F. (2021). “Mission d’aider et pandémie : l’autoformation
comme stratégie d’adaptation des délégués sociaux de la FTQ.” Ad Machina, 5 (1);
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De Kersabiec, S. (2016). Halte à Hippocrate, au secours Socrate! Souffrance au travail :

problème médical ou question de sens? Condé-sur-Noireau: Éditions du Palio.

International Labour Organization (ILO). (2019). Security and Health at the Heart of the
Future of Work: Building on 100 Years of Experience. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO
Publications; available at: www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---
safework/documents/publication/wcms_687610.pdf.

International Labour Organization (ILO). (2016). Workplace Stress : A Collective

Challenge. World Day for Safety and Health at Work (April 28, 2016). Geneva,
Switzerland: ILO Publications; accessed September 23, 2019,
www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---
safework/documents/publication/wcms_466547.pdf.

Academia Letters, June 2022 ©2022 by the authors – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Melanie Dufour-Poirier, melanie.dufour-poirier@umontreal.ca

Citation: Dufour-Poirier, M., D'Ortun, F. (2022). ©Trans-faire: A Mechanism for Taking Collective Control
of Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace. Academia Letters, Article 5670.
https://doi.org/10.20935/AL5670