The Laval region education union rejected the agreement in principle concluded with Quebec by 68%. This is the first member union of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) to speak out against the agreement.
The agreement was presented Thursday evening at an assembly to the 6,500 teachers of this union, who had recommended Tuesday its members to reject the agreement in principle concluded with Quebec at the end of December. The union did not want to say on exactly which points it considered that the agreement reached with the Legault government was unsatisfactory.
At the time of writing these lines, we still did not know the outcome of the vote for Montreal’s largest teaching union, the Alliance of Professors. The members of the Alliance had been meeting in a virtual general assembly for more than seven hours.
“The assembly is going well. Teachers are entitled to an exhaustive explanation of the agreement in principle. They have time to ask their questions, get answers, and then provide comments. The democratic exercise is necessary,” he told The Press the Alliance’s communications advisor, Alexis Richard, at the end of the evening.
The union submitted the agreement to teachers without recommending that they vote for or against it. With 9,300 members, the Alliance of Professors is the largest affiliated union of the FAE.
Adopted in east Montreal
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Syndicat de l’enseignement de la Pointe-de-l’Île (SEPÎ), in Montreal, adopted the agreement in principle at 58.5%. Also affiliated with the FAE, the union, which represents 4,384 teachers at the Pointe-de-l’Île school service center, recommended that its members reject the agreement in principle.
At the beginning of the week, the board of directors of the Haute-Yamaska Education Union (SEHY) also recommended to its members to reject the agreement in principle concluded with Quebec, due to the government’s “apparent contempt” towards the teachers.
The president of this union, Sophie Veilleux, did not want to comment on this decision “before the members have spoken”. However, in its email, the union writes that it believes that the agreement in principle “does not significantly improve [les] working conditions, including the composition of the class.
The FAE has nine affiliated unions which bring together 66,000 teachers. As part of negotiations leading to the renewal of their collective agreement, they held a 22-day strike at the end of last year.
For the agreement in principle signed by the FAE to be ratified, it must be accepted by a double majority, i.e. at least 50% of the members and 50% of the unions, therefore by at least five of the nine affiliated unions, but also by minus 50% of the votes + 1 of the total members. Voting by unions affiliated with the FAE continues until January 25.
A refusal to the Common Front
On the side of the Common Front, members are called upon to vote separately on the intersectoral agreement, which notably includes salaries, retirement and group insurance, and the sectoral agreement, which concerns the composition of the class and the conditions of work.
On Thursday, the Lanaudière Education Union (SEL-CSQ) rejected the sectoral agreement by 62%, while the intersectoral agreement was accepted by 93%.
The members of the Estrie Education Union (SEE) for their part approved the sectoral agreement by 50.5% and 88.3% for the intersectoral agreement. Members were able to consult the content of the agreement during a first virtual meeting on Monday and were invited to vote on Wednesday.
In terms of salaries, the Common Front obtained increases of 17.4% over five years. Since Monday, its members have been called to vote on the agreement. More than half of them will have to vote for the agreement for it to be accepted.