(Montreal) The 1,800 engineers employed by the Quebec government did go on strike last night after negotiations with Quebec broke down.
Posted at 8:01 a.m.
Updated at 8:57 am
Another indefinite strike was called at 12:01 a.m. by members of the Professional Association of Quebec Government Engineers.
The members of the APIGQ had walked out for the first time, on April 23, but they had interrupted their strike after a month, in order to give a chance to the negotiation, explained in an interview the president of the union, Marc-André Martin.
But those talks broke down early last night. Mr. Martin maintains that the negotiation is now “at an impasse”. He says the parties were “a hair’s breadth away from an agreement in principle” late Tuesday evening.
The remuneration of engineers is at the heart of the dispute. The APIGQ reports that its members have a significant salary gap compared to engineers in other public sectors, such as the municipal one.
Mr. Martin reports that the union was ready to lengthen the work week to 37.5 hours, as requested by the Treasury Board. He says the Treasury also wants to create a second class of expert engineers.
However, the Quebec government has already claimed to have presented a significant offer to its engineers with the aim of renewing their collective agreement.
Some 1,200 of the 1,800 APIGQ engineers work at the Ministère des Transports. The others work in the Ministry of the Environment or are distributed in different ministries.
The strike by government-employed engineers therefore risks affecting the supervision of construction sites, the authorization to launch a site and the negotiation of contracts with consulting engineering firms.