Dear civil servants, don’t forget the taxpayers

An extra hundred dollars a week. This request from Quebec employees is a fully accepted historical nod. He refers to the stormy negotiations of 1972 which landed the three union leaders in prison… before Prime Minister Robert Bourassa finally gave in by offering raises of nearly 40% to employees.

Fifty years later, the context is very different. But expect things to get hotter this fall. The unions are sharpening their weapons, with a major demonstration this Saturday in Montreal and a regional tour to obtain strike mandates, by mid-October.

Avoid the general strike? Don’t count on it too much. The unions want it to bleed to prove to their members that they have done everything to achieve the maximum.

But should we remember that it is the citizens who will pay the price? Already, the lack of services is glaring. And taxpayers’ ability to pay is not unlimited.

Quebec put $7 billion on the table with its offer which totals a 13% increase over five years. For their part, the unions are demanding the equivalent of 21% over three years.

Public sector employees are entitled to our sympathy, those who rolled up their sleeves to work in difficult conditions during the pandemic.

But we have to be realistic. Each percentage point more that Quebec grants them will empty the state coffers of 600 million dollars. All this while the province is still in deficit.

Nevertheless, the unions are campaigning for “salary catch-up”. We understand that inflation eats into their purchasing power. But everyone gets a taste of it, including private sector workers who have less generous working conditions.

In 2022, Quebec government employees earned on average $55,652. This is 8.7% below the salary of workers in the private sector, according to the Institute of Statistics of Quebec¹.

But to compare apples with apples, we must take into account all the benefits that the public service benefits from: more leave, a shorter week, a more generous pension plan, an insurance program, job security, etc.

Putting all these benefits into balance, Quebec employees have a total remuneration of $44.69 per hour, which is 3.9% higher than that of private sector employees.

And again, we are talking about those who work in companies with 200 employees or more. The gap would certainly be greater if we compare it with all workers in Quebec, including those who are self-employed or who work in smaller companies.

Nevertheless, the expectations of the 420,000 common front employees are high.

They remember the unreasonable 30% salary increase that the National Assembly voted for its deputies.

They also note that other unions have made significant gains by taking a hard line, thanks to the labor shortage. In 2022, the number of days lost due to labor conflict increased by 49% compared to the average of the 10 years before the pandemic, according to RBC².

And it continues. So much so that union members who signed an employment contract during the summer managed to obtain increases of 7.1% for the first year of their collective agreement, which had not been seen for years. decades.

These impressive increases risk fueling an inflationary spiral that will harm the Bank of Canada’s efforts to return inflation to normal.

And they risk whet the appetite of other union members who want to have the moon, like the police officers who refused an offer of 21% over five years. This is why negotiations with Quebec promise to be difficult, especially since salaries are not necessarily the biggest stumbling block.

Differentiated offers are very difficult. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has chosen to offer higher increases to certain workers to act in a more targeted manner, where it is really critical (for example: more advantageous salaries for nurses who work shifts). night or weekend).

However, this approach causes a feeling of inequity within the troops. And it creates an eternal temptation to level up from other employees who wonder when their turn will come.

In this context of turbulence, it remains essential to conduct reasoned and reasonable negotiation.

The government must keep the purse strings tight, out of fairness to private sector employees who will end up paying the bill through their taxes, already the heaviest in the country.

And let’s not lose sight of the fact that, despite the improvement in recent years, Quebec remains the third province with the highest debt per capita.

While union and employer demands seem as far away as the moon and the sun, we must remain with both feet on the ground.