(Montreal) The strike extends to ambulance companies in Quebec and will affect other municipalities such as Saint-Hyacinthe, Amqui, Granby, Saint-Jean-Port-Joli and Acton Vale starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Posted at 2:55 p.m.
In fact, the strike had already affected other unions and other municipalities since last June or July. But the public is only slightly affected by these strikes, given the scale of the essential services that must be provided.
Thus, all ambulance transport must be carried out, including transfers between health establishments.
The means of pressure that can be exercised by the paramedics, within the framework of these strikes, relate to the cleaning of vehicles, for example, to the return journey of health workers who had to accompany a patient in the ambulance and to forms to be to fill.
Thus, the unions concerned at the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, affiliated with the CSN, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, affiliated with the FTQ, are targeting or will target the billing forms that paramedics normally fill out to submit them. to their employer. This means of pressure therefore complicates the life of ambulance companies.
Claims
The dispute is mainly about wages, but also about shift schedules, retirement, overtime, said in an interview Benoît Cowell, president of the Fraternity of pre-hospital workers – a local section of CUPE, affiliated with the FTQ.
He reports that the starting salary for paramedics is around $24 and climbs to $35 an hour at the top of the scale.
“We are aiming for a salary of at least $41 an hour (at the top of the scale). If we compare ourselves to police officers and firefighters who work in emergencies, they all have a much higher salary than us. In the health network, those who have qualifications similar to ours, who have DECs (Diplomas of Collegial Studies) such as respiratory therapists and nurses, they all have a (salary) ranking higher than ours as well,” argues Ms. .Cowell.
The FSSS also reports that the normative issues have been fairly settled.
Invited to comment, the Coalition of Paramedical Services Companies of Quebec preferred not to comment on the negotiations in progress or “the means of pressure authorized by the Administrative Labor Tribunal”.
“Like the paramedics, we want these negotiations to be settled quickly,” she replied simply.