Mobilization is growing in the public sector, as activists from the inter-union common front and the FIQ demonstrate on Thursday to mark the expiry of the collective agreements that cover 600,000 state employees.
The common front was to demonstrate Thursday noon in front of the parliament in Quebec. And the activists of the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) demonstrated in the morning in front of a hotel in downtown Montreal where the management and union negotiating committees were meeting for another session.
Addressing a hundred of her activists on Thursday morning, the president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard, underlined the fact that so far there had only been eight negotiation sessions with Quebec, while the demands of the FIQ were tabled in November and Quebec’s global offers in December.
And the government offers that have been received are not yet complete, lamented Ms. Bouchard.
“Eight meetings in four months is clearly insufficient. It is certainly not the signal of someone who wants to settle quickly, ”launched the union leader, which represents 80,000 nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists.
“There are limits” intoned the FIQ activists, under sirens, horns and rallying cries.
In a press briefing in Quebec, the common front wanted to make a first show of force by bringing together 2,000 delegates from its various unions at the Convention Center, before going to demonstrate at noon.
“We will have to move on to something other than visibility,” said Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, at a press briefing before the event.
“The message is very strong today. We are at the end of the collective agreements and already 2000 workers are ready to mobilize to tell the government: we have held Quebec at arm’s length in recent years; we want more than recognition; we want to be treated fairly, with dignity,” summed up Magali Picard, president of the FTQ.