Two-week strike in April for legal aid lawyers
The regions of Montreal, Laval, Laurentides, Lanaudière, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie will be affected by the strike.
Failing an agreement on pay parity, the unions of legal aid lawyers affiliated with the CSN will again go on strike for two weeks next April , they announced in a press release on Friday.
The main demand of the union group remains pay parity for legal aid with Crown prosecutors. More specifically, the government would refuse to grant the same wage increases to the two entities in question, according to the unions, an omission that is increasingly eroding their patience.
Despite all the necessary demonstrations, those opposite are unable to assure us of the maintenance of this parity, added the president of the Montreal legal aid union. and Laval–CSN, Justine Lambert-Boulianne.
The government wants to address the issue to a committee made up of representatives from other government lawyers' groups, who do not do the same job as legal aid, namely to plead the same case, before the same judge, in the same court, before a Crown prosecutor, supported a member of the CSN in an interview with Radio-Canada.
New players have joined the cause. In fact, legal aid lawyers from Mauricie–Centre-du-Québec and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean have left the Federation of Legal Aid Lawyers of Quebec (FAAJQ) , who would have compromised pay parity with the Crown in an agreement in principle signed in 2022, in order to join the legal troops who are members of the CSN.
While the justice system is already cracking everywhere, it is access to justice that the government is attacking by attacking the network legal aid, lamented Hugo Caissy, president of the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie union.
The union will contact the judiciary to have the hearings scheduled during the walkout period postponed.
The regions of Montreal and Laval, as well as those of the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie, will be affected by the strike. The Syndicate of the Rive-Sud legal community center will hold a strike vote next Monday, it is indicated in the press release.
The renewal of a strike mandate was voted on with the support of 97% of Montreal union members on December 28, 2022, one day after completing five walkout days.
The strikers had been threatened with disciplinary sanctions if they did not show themselves available according to the holiday schedules imposed by the employer, can we read in a text published on the CSN website dated December 28.
A total of 250 lawyers are represented by legal aid unions affiliated with the CSN.
