The argument is burning between the state employee unions and the Treasury Board. The strike days planned for the coming weeks are being maintained following the submission of a new offer from the government deemed “derisory and insulting”.
The Legault government is proposing a salary increase of 10.3% over five years in addition to a 3% bonus for certain job categories. These would serve, for example, to encourage more nurses to work evenings and weekends.
As was already the case in the previous offer, the 600,000 union members employed in Quebec would also receive a lump sum of $1,000 the first year.
Quebec says it has increased its overall offer from 13% to 14.8% increase for the next five years with this new proposal. In terms of salary alone, the unions are asking for around 20%.
The common front, which brings together the CSN, the FTQ, the CSQ and the APTS, and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) therefore brushed aside the improved offer submitted by the president of the Council of treasure, Sonia Lebel, Sunday.
“We will be in the streets on November 6. […] With an announcement like the one made this morning, the level of frustration only increases,” notes the president of the FTQ, Magali Picard.
Below inflation
The president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras, emphasizes that this offer is “unacceptable” since it “does not even approach” the level of inflation expected in the coming years.
“We all want to resolve this quickly, but are we going to fall below the rate of inflation? There is no question. […] If the government thinks it will settle on the cheap, it won’t happen. Those times when, in Quebec, we negotiated to save the status quo, [c’est fini]. »
Speed and vehemence
In a telephone interview, Sonia LeBel affirmed that she was “extremely surprised” to see the unions react so vehemently, while “the ink is not even dry yet” on Sunday morning’s offer.
“What we just put on the table this morning is $8B, or $1B more than in the last offer. It’s not peccadilloes. This is most certainly a serious offer. »
According to Ms. LeBel, the funds monopolized by services to Quebecers “cannot all go into collective agreements”. She maintains that Quebec must keep room to maneuver to renovate its hospitals and schools, among others.
Even if tension has increased between the two parties, the President of the Treasury Board still hopes to resolve the situation before December 15, as she “wished from the beginning”.
Salary reduction
For his part, the vice-president of the FIQ, Jérôme Rousseau, deplores Quebec’s decision to abolish the 3.5% salary bonus offered to health workers in his fourth filing.
The government claims that these bonuses were granted as part of the health emergency and must end one day or another.
“Yes there was an element of timing, it happened during the pandemic, but it was a duly negotiated bonus,” argues Mr. Rousseau. […] It goes down our throats. All nurses, practical nurses and respiratory therapists would see 3.5% of their salaries cut. »
Upcoming strike days in education and health
– The 420,000 union members of the common front (the CSN, the FTQ, the CSQ and the APTS) will be on strike on November 6.
– The 80,000 nurses and other health workers of the FIQ will walk off the job on November 8 and 9.
– The 65,000 members of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) have still not announced which day they will be on strike.