At the dawn of a three-day strike, workers in the health and social services network say they are “ready for a long fight” in order to obtain better working conditions.
“We are ready to continue the strike for as long as it takes. We are all ready for a long fight,” declared Jean-François Dionne, who has worked in the kitchens of the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM) for around twenty years. Around a hundred employees gathered in front of the establishment Tuesday morning, sign in hand, in order to make themselves heard by the government.
The second strike sequence of the common front of the public sector began on Tuesday and will continue until Thursday. The common front brings together 420,000 workers from four unions (CSN, CSQ, FTQ and APTS). The health, social services and education sectors are affected.
“I voted to strike indefinitely. It will take the time it needs. I bought myself some new suits. I’m ready,” laughed Pierre-Yves Paradis, who works in nuclear medicine. He deplores that salaries in his field are much lower than elsewhere in Canada, which is detrimental to staff retention.
The latest offer from the Legault government includes salary increases of 10.3% over five years, in addition to bonuses representing 3% for certain categories of workers and a lump sum for all of $1,000 in the first year.
“I think the government doesn’t realize that we exist and that we have families. We already work like dogs on weekends, holidays and nights. That’s not enough,” said laboratory technician Cassandre Houdin.
Better working conditions
“For several years the network has been in crisis and today we are experiencing a climax. All the staff are overworked and all the staff are exhausted,” declared the president of the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), Réjean Leclerc, in a press scrum in front of the research center of the CHUM.
The common front considers the Legault government’s offer “derisory” and “insulting”. Instead, he is asking for salary increases of around 20% over three years.
“The government must agree to talk to us. Ministers, Ms. Lebel, instead of enriching the millionaires of the Kings, start worrying about working conditions to improve the fate of all your workers,” declared Sylvie Nelson, president of the Quebec Union of Employees of services (SQEES-FTQ).
Repercussions on the health network
These days of strike will have repercussions on the health network. The Ministry of Health and Social Services estimates that 450 elective surgeries will have to be postponed per day of strike.
Around 1,500 surgeries are carried out per day and services are maintained at 70%. “Urgent, semi-urgent and oncological surgeries are not affected,” declared MSSS spokesperson Francis Martel.
He also specifies that the figures are based on theoretical hypotheses and “could vary considerably depending on the situation actually observed in each establishment”.