(Montreal) The Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, has just announced the appointment of a conciliator, at the request of the FIQ, to try to bring together the large union organization of nurses and the government of Quebec.
The FIQ claims to have come to request the intervention of a conciliator “in the face of the slowness of the table and the total lack of openness to compromise on the part of the government”.
She specifies that after 75 negotiation sessions, “very significant disagreements” persist on key issues such as the management of overtime, nurse/patient ratios and compensation for various work inconveniences.
Prime Minister François Legault himself mentioned last week that health negotiations were difficult, to the point where he did not envisage a possible settlement before January.
The common front had already requested the intervention of such a conciliator and, according to him, this had created “momentum” in the discussions with Quebec.
The four instances
So far, the common front has held one day of strike, then three consecutive, then seven. It had already warned that the last sequence of seven days, from December 8 to 14, would be the last before the exercise of the indefinite strike .
However, it is unknown whether these union organizations, which together represent 420,000 workers in the education and health networks, will decide now on the date of launching this indefinite strike. They could well postpone their decision until January, since negotiations are continuing with the Treasury Board, quite intensively, according to both parties.
The four of the common front made it known that everything will depend on the degree of progress in negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements, and this, not only at the intersectoral level – salaries, pension plan, regional disparities – but also at the sectoral level – planning. working time, task burden, class composition, for example.
Moreover, the four bodies which met all day on Tuesday discussed progress – or little progress – in sectoral and intersectoral negotiations.
There has been a lot of talk about sectoral issues in education: classroom support, class composition, support for students in difficulty, but less about sectoral issues in health.
However, government requests for “flexibility” from health workers irritate the FIQ, for example, which fears that Quebec wants to move nurses from care units, health establishments, or even shifts, depending on the needs of employers. Although Quebec has publicly said that this would be a choice of the nurse, the FIQ fears that if Quebec does not find enough “volunteers” to meet these needs, it will impose its wishes.
Other health professionals – physiotherapists, nutritionists, for example – are also demanding reimbursement of contributions to their professional order.
The four organizations of the common front must make their intentions publicly known on Wednesday morning, during a press conference.
Furthermore, the Union of Government Professionals of Quebec (SPGQ), a union independent of the centrals and the common front, revealed on Tuesday that it had submitted a salary counter-proposal to the Treasury Board.
Quebec’s latest offer, intended for all state employees, now at 12.7% over five years, seems insufficient to meet the “expectations of salary catch-up and protection of purchasing power” that have its members, he said.