(Montreal) With an unlimited general strike mandate very strongly approved by its members, the Autonomous Education Federation still decided to give one last chance to negotiations. She will not start a strike right away.
She intends to exercise her strike mandate “at the appropriate time”, but has not yet decided on the date.
One of its bodies met all day, Thursday, to take stock of the holding of strike votes in its nine unions and decide on the next course of action.
Parents will therefore benefit from a reprieve for some time, since the FAE has not yet set a date for the start of its possible strike. But she will do so if there is no significant progress at the negotiating tables, she warns.
Negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements with the Quebec government have been going on for months. The union demands were submitted last fall and Quebec submitted its offers in December.
Earlier this week, the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, asked public sector union organizations to prune their sectoral demands, to reduce their number, as she herself is preparing to do. These are requests relating to working conditions – and not salaries or pensions – in sectors such as education or health.
The FAE believes that it has already reduced its requests in order to accelerate progress towards an agreement with Quebec.
Through its nine primary and secondary teaching unions, the FAE represents 65,500 members.
Its unions are the Montreal Teachers’ Alliance, the West Montreal Teaching Union, the Pointe-de-l’Ile Teaching Union, the Laval region and the Basses -Laurentides, that of the Seigneuries, that of Outaouais, that of Haute-Yamaska and that of the Quebec region.
The strike mandate requested from the members is one of unlimited general strike. The members do not intend to go through an intermediate stage such as isolated or grouped strike days, explained the president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert.
Members of the FAE have already started certain pressure tactics such as boycotting meetings with management, boycotting training or refusing to organize certain extracurricular activities.