Prime Minister François Legault says a return to class is possible for all children next Monday, while negotiations are going “very well” with teachers on strike, but he warns that we may have to wait until January to get along with employees in the health sector.
Mr. Legault was encouraged by the ongoing discussions regarding the renewal of public sector collective agreements. While teachers represented by the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) have been on strike since November 23, the Prime Minister expressed his hope concretely.
“The negotiations with the teachers are going well, very well,” he said upon arriving at his offices. We talk to each other about the heaviness of the task, about how we can add people to classes, it’s going very well. Then I have good hope that all the children will return to school this coming Monday. »
Mr. Legault had less optimistic remarks for employees in the health sector, also on strike.
“As far as health goes, it’s very, very difficult,” he said. There is almost no openness to giving us the flexibility that is absolutely necessary to improve health services. So from that side, I think things will be better in January. »
After making this statement while getting out of his company car, Mr. Legault did not respond to journalists’ questions. He rushed into the Honoré-Mercier building, where a meeting of the Council of Ministers would later be held.
Fluctuations
If Monday was more productive at the negotiating tables, Tuesday’s conversations were not as encouraging, according to the FAE. A sign that “days follow one another and are not always the same” and that a rapid settlement is not in sight, indicates the union.
“When work resumes [mardi] morning, the conversation was no longer as encouraging,” said President Mélanie Hubert in a video published late Tuesday evening.
Monday “had been good” and “the discussions were productive”, according to the FAE negotiating committee, “and we were encouraged”. “But, unfortunately, the days follow one another and are not always the same,” said Mélanie Hubert.
She maintains that at the end of the day Monday, the management side submitted texts in anticipation of Tuesday, but these “did not necessarily reflect what was said during the day”. “The texts did not take into account the discussions, the ideas of the union side,” she says.
“We have fallen back a little into the same mode that we have been in for some time, that is to say that the good old reflex is for the union to give us feedback now,” she continues.
The president of the FAE is currently in Quebec to follow the negotiations more closely and she still hopes for a settlement by Christmas while thousands of students are deprived of school.
Wednesday will be devoted to follow-ups in the FAE bodies so “that the affiliated unions can take the full measure of all this”. “The urgency is that things are resolved at the tables, the urgency is that we reach an agreement,” she said.