Jacques Nadeau Le Devoir The Common Front, which includes the CSN, the CSQ, the FTQ and the APTS, represents 420,000 Quebec state workers in the public sectors.
After progress was made in negotiations for the renewal of public sector collective agreements, at the end of the week, negotiations were put on pause and will resume after Christmas, Quebec announced.
“Negotiations will continue on December 26, 2023,” simply wrote the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, in a publication broadcast on X, formerly Twitter, around 6 p.m. Sunday evening.
The CSQ also confirmed this information on its page X.
Several advances have been made at the sectoral tables in health and education in recent days, while unions have announced that they have reached tentative agreements in principle on their working conditions.
Late Sunday afternoon, the government announced that it had agreed to sectoral settlement proposals with nine federations of the CSQ and with the eight federations of the CSN.
The Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) and the College Council of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, affiliated with the FTQ, also announced on Sunday that they had reached their turn to a hypothesis of agreement in principle, at the end of a night of intensive work at the sectoral negotiation table.
The APTS represents 65,000 members of the health and social services sector.
Gains
“For a little over a year, we have been working hard to obtain an improvement in the conditions of exercise and practice of professionals and technicians who are members of the APTS as well as better recognition of their expertise in order to combat the labor shortage and work overload in our public network,” declared Robert Comeau, president of the APTS in a press release Sunday morning.
“The gains obtained today would promote attraction and retention within our 108 job titles,” said Mr. Comeau, whose union is a member of the Inter-union Common Front herein public sector negotiations.
Moreover, it is only when a hypothesis of agreement has also been obtained at the central table that the general council of the APTS will decide whether there will be an agreement in principle to be submitted to the vote of its members in general assembly.
Late Sunday morning, the government confirmed the news. No details were given except that the possible agreement is for a period of five years.
A few hours later, it was the turn of the College Council, also a member of the Common Front, to make a similar announcement. The union also recalled that “this hypothesis of settlement [was] linked to a settlement at the central table where salary issues are negotiated”. This was the first proposal with a union affiliated with the FTQ.
The Common Front, which includes the CSN, the CSQ, the FTQ and the APTS, represents some 420,000 Quebec state workers in the public sector in education, health and social services. In particular, he negotiates salaries and pension plans at the central table.
On Saturday, it was the Federation of Health and Social Services, affiliated with the CSN (FSSS-CSN), which got the ball rolling by announcing that it had reached a “hypothesis of agreement in principle » sectoral with Quebec. It represents 120,000 healthcare workers.
The agreement is over five years, from 2023 to 2028, and targets nearly 40% of the staff in the health and social services network, announced the office of the President of the Council of treasure, Sonia LeBel.
Sectoral agreements in education
Around 9 p.m. Saturday, the Federation of Education Professionals of Quebec affiliated with the CSQ (FPPE-CSQ) announced a proposed sectoral regulation for the 58 French-speaking school service centers that it represents.
“This proposal targets sectoral working conditions for professional staff and will be presented to the Federal Council of the Federation on December 27,” the union said in a press release. The council must ratify this proposed regulation so that it can be presented to the members.
The day before, the Federation of Education Unions (FSE), affiliated with the CSQ, as well as the Provincial Association of Teachers of Quebec (APEQ) endorsed a proposed sectoral regulation with the Legault government as part of negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements.
The FSE-CSQ represents 95,000 teachers and the APEQ represents members of the English-speaking school network.
A sectoral agreement in principle was also announced Saturday evening by the Federation of Professional College Personnel (FPPC-CSQ). The agreement targets more than 2,000 professionals.
Then before dawn on Sunday, the negotiating committee of the FEESP-CSN CEGEP Support Sector also confirmed on its Facebook page that it had “reached a hypothesis of agreement in principle with the College Employer Negotiating Committee (CPNC) on sectoral matters affecting the working conditions of CEGEP support staff.”
Then in the afternoon, it was the turn of the Federation of School Support Personnel (FPSS-CSQ) to arrive at global settlement proposals with the Employer Negotiating Committee for French-speaking School Service Centers and the Employer Negotiating Committee for English-speaking school boards.
“Negotiations are continuing for the renewal of the collective agreements for school support staff of the Cree and Kativik school boards,” we add in the press release.
The FPSS also issues a warning: there is not yet a regulation at the central intersectoral table. We will have to agree on salaries and “other essentials for school support staff” if we want to avoid a resumption of pressure tactics in January.
Following all these announcements, pressure is now increasing on the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), which are not part of the Inter-union Common Front in this case. round of negotiations with the government of Quebec.
Also read
- A hypothesis of a sectoral agreement in principle concluded between the FSSS-CSN and Quebec
- Five questions to understand the proposed regulation endorsed by the FSE and the QPAT