Photo: Karoline Boucher The Canadian Press According to François Legault, the main issue is flexibility in collective agreements. “This is the only way that will make it possible to improve services to the population,” the Prime Minister said Thursday.
Alexandre Robillard and Marie-Eve Cousineau
November 23, 2023
- Quebec
Prime Minister François Legault committed Thursday to improving the salary offers made to public sector union members in exchange for concessions on the organization of their work .
Mr. Legault affirmed that the current negotiations were decisive for the future of the health and education networks.
According to him, the main issue is flexibility in collective agreements. “This is the only way that will make it possible to improve services to the population,” he said at a press briefing.
In health, the government wants more flexibility to facilitate the preparation of schedules and intends to offer bonuses for shifts that are less easy to fill, such as night shifts, or positions in the regions.
In the health sector, education, the government wants to settle teacher assignments before the summer rather than in August, which is causing “psychodramas.”
Mr. Legault did not want to reveal the arguments put forward by the unions on these specific questions.
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“What I say to the unions is ‘come to the negotiating table’. In exchange for this flexibility, we are ready to increase our offer, which for the moment is 14.8%, he said. We are ready to improve it, but I insist: it is not true that we are going to miss another negotiation to find the flexibility that is necessary to provide more effective services to Quebecers. »
Union rights
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, invited the unions to make a counter-offer to the government.
“Everything we put on the table deserves, I think, a constructive counter-offer. And I say to the unions: you are asking us for openness, [but] do you have any, openness, on the allocation of positions before the end of June so that we have good returns? school? »
Mr. Drainville said that with the current salary offer, after 12 years a teacher would receive about $102,000 per year.
His colleague Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, also called for concessions on the organization of work.
“We must change union rights for personal rights,” he said.
Mr. Dubé said unions should no longer prevent employees from opting for 12-hour shifts or getting bonuses for less attractive shifts.
“We must organization of work, that is to say collective agreements, allows the employee who says “I want to do a 12-hour schedule” not to be blocked by the union,” he said. he declared.
Important walkout
The strike movement in the public sector reached its peak on Thursday with the walkout of more than 550,000 state employees.
To the 420,000 union members of the Common Front in health, social services and education added the 80,000 members of the Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ) and the 66,500 teachers of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE).
The FIQ began a series of two days of walkouts. The FAE has just launched an indefinite general strike, a first in 40 years. The latter held a demonstration bringing together thousands of people at Jarry Park in Montreal. Union members from various regions (Outaouais, Laurentides, etc.) participated. The Common Front, for its part, held a large rally at Parc des Faubourg, near the Jacques-Cartier bridge, in the Centre-Sud district.
No other walkouts planned for the FIQ
Like the Common Front, the FIQ does not plan, for the moment, to add other strike days. Unions must notify the Administrative Labor Court, 10 days in advance, of their intention to strike. “For the moment, there is nothing planned yet,” said FIQ president Julie Bouchard during a press briefing held Thursday morning in front of Santa Cabrini hospital in Montreal. “On the other hand, at no time do we rule out the possibility of [walking out]. »
The FIQ says it will be present at the negotiating table on Thursday, as it was on Wednesday. “For the moment, there are discussions,” said Julie Bouchard. Its not always easy. Openness is not always present, but there is still a small glimmer of hope. »
Photo: Adil Boukind Le Devoir “For the moment, there is nothing planned yet,” said FIQ president Julie Bouchard on Thursday morning in front of Santa Cabrini hospital in Montreal. “On the other hand, at no time do we rule out the possibility of [walking out]. »
The FIQ is demanding a salary increase of 24% over a period of three years. The latest offer the government tabled, on October 29, calls for a 10.3% increase over five years. “It’s [adding] insult to injury,” says Julie Bouchard. That doesn't even cover inflation. »
The union denounces the employer's request to move nurses from one unit to another or from one hospital to another according to the needs of the CIUSSS and CISSS. “It is not by moving healthcare professionals from one side to the other, as they like, as they like, that we can ensure that we offer better care to the population and that we are going to create attraction and retention in the network,” proclaimed Julie Bouchard.
Quebec Solidaire MP Vincent Marissal was on site to support the strikers. “Their fight is our fight for public services,” he told Devoir, on the sidelines of the press briefing. The spokesperson for the second opposition group on health denounces the “shift” of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) towards the private sector. “At some point, we’re going to have to realize that we’re at a crossroads. Either we save it, our public network, and it goes through these people, or we do like the CAQ, we give up. »