Despite the positive signals sent by the Autonomous Federation of Education, Minister of Education Bernard Drainville maintains that a long teachers’ strike remains possible.
Thursday morning, the president of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE), Mélanie Hubert, reported interesting developments which could lead her organization to suspend its indefinite general strike, which has been underway for two weeks.
“I see that this morning, Ms. Hubert said that there was movement at the tables. And so I’m happy about that, because God knows we can’t wait for this strike to end. Because I, as I already told you, I fear a lot for the children. I fear for the delays of our children and in particular our children who have special needs,” declared Bernard Drainville a few minutes before entering the CAQ caucus.
Thus, the minister “remains hopeful” of a rapid outcome. Despite everything, the signals sent by the FAE, whose members have been on an indefinite general strike for two weeks, are not enough to convince Mr. Drainville that an agreement is within reach.
No guarantees
The conflict, he admits, could last until Christmas. “Unfortunately, it’s possible that it will last that long, but I can’t believe that it will last that long. What we want is for there to be a settlement as quickly as possible, for the children, first and foremost, for the parents, but also for the staff who are starting to find it quite difficult. underlines Mr. Drainville.
Once the strike is over, Quebec will be able to study the various scenarios in order to recover the lost days, depending on the duration of the walkout.
For his part, Prime Minister François Legault also showed himself encouraged by the positive signals sent by the FAE. However, discussions are more difficult with the union representing nurses, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), he confides.
“I think things go well with the teachers. With nurses and the FIQ, it’s more complicated,” estimates François Legault.
“I find that it makes no sense for a union to be able to block, for example, a bonus that we want to give to a night nurse because we are short of night shifts, or a bonus that we wants to give to a nurse who agrees to work in a region where there is a significant shortage of nurses,” declared the Prime Minister.