The 80,000 members of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), mostly nurses, will walk out on Wednesday and Thursday. According to the union, the strike vote, at 95%, and the participation rate for it, 74%, are the highest in its history. This mobilization testifies to the fed up of caregivers, who have long been demanding better salary and working conditions, according to former presidents of the FIQ with whom The duty spoke.
The nurses went on a seven-day strike in 1989. “Our slogan was: “To be there tomorrow”,” remembers Diane Lavallée, then head of the FIQ, which was negotiating its first convention. “We told the Quebec government: ‘If you don’t improve the salary and working conditions of nurses, if you don’t promote this profession, tomorrow there won’t be any nurses left to provide care. Women will choose a more rewarding and more paying profession.” Unfortunately, I wish I wasn’t right. »
Nurses have made gains over the years, but their working conditions “seem to have deteriorated,” notes Diane Lavallée, now a company administrator. The public health network is short of nurses, even though there have never been so many of them in the profession in Quebec. “There is a big change to be made,” thinks the former general director of the Quebec Association of Health and Social Services Establishments.
The negotiations will be difficult, believes Lina Bonamie, president of the FIQ from 2005 to 2009. “I’m very happy not to be there! » says the retiree, formerly responsible for the negotiations file on the executive committee. “Working conditions have deteriorated so much that expectations are immense on the salary side and on the work organization side. It’s difficult to keep people happy. »
According to Lina Bonamie, Quebec threw “a little fuel on the fire” by increasing the salaries of deputies by 30%. “It is true that it has been a long time since there has been any catching up for the deputies, except that they could have spread it over several years, which they did not do,” notes she said. This increase “marks the imagination”. “A deputy has 30%, but I [infirmière], I am forced to stay at my workplace for eight more hours and I am not entitled to the inflation amount. » Quebec, however, has an “asset in its game”: the elections are still far away. “He can afford to be hated a little,” she says.
From guardian angels to pawns
The FIQ considers Quebec’s latest offer “ridiculous”, which notably proposes a salary increase of 10.3% over five years. According to its president, Julie Bouchard, the Legault government wants to make “guardian angels” into “interchangeable pawns”, which will harm the quality of services. “One of their requests is that we be able to move healthcare professionals from an establishment [par exemple un hôpital] to another, depending on the needs of the employer. There is no volunteering! »
If negotiations stall, the FIQ says it is ready to add strike days and even launch an indefinite general strike. But there is no question, for the moment, of launching a slogan. In 1989, nurses stopped offering availability and working overtime, which led to the closure of 1,800 beds, recalls Diane Lavallée. The Essential Services Council had intervened. During the general strike, nurses lost one year of seniority per day of strike.
Diane Lavallée believes in negotiation and compromise. “Couldn’t there be banks of people who, on a voluntary basis, would agree to be moved occasionally to put out fires and meet personnel needs in their territory? » “Inconvenience bonuses” could be offered, she suggests.
Lina Bonamie believes that even seemingly “illogical” solutions must be explored. “In 1989, the night service had a huge shortage of nurses,” she says. We implemented nine days of work per fortnight, but paid for 10 nights. » The incentive, which had the effect of making nurses work less, was attractive. “We have filled the majority of night shifts! »