Faced with slow negotiations and a collective agreement that has expired since April 2020, the employees of the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ) are urging the Legault government to better fund the institution and thus increase their salaries, which are among the highest bottom of their sector.
“Mr. Legault recognizes that it is difficult to live at $18 an hour. Well, I have colleagues who have this salary at the BAnQ. It makes no sense for a national institution like ours. We deserve salaries that match our value,” argues Sylviane Cossette, president of the Union of United Workers of the Library and National Archives of Quebec (STTuBAnQ–CSN), in an interview with the To have to.
Last week, during an in-house exchange on the minimum wage with the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, François Legault admitted that “it is difficult to get there with $18 a hour, especially when you have children. He added that his goal is to have “people making $25 an hour — that’s the average. roughly. in Quebec — increase to $26, $27, $28”.
Taking the Prime Minister at his word, Mr.me Cossette pointed out that many of his colleagues currently earn just $18 an hour, much less than many of their colleagues from other Quebec libraries. By way of comparison: a library clerk working at the BAnQ earns about $33,000 a year, while he can hope to raise $37,200 at the Université de Montréal, $43,700 at the City of Beloeil or even $49,300 $ to the City of Brossard.
” It’s time to act “
In the midst of negotiations with its employer and the Treasury Board – and has been since the end of 2021 – the STTuBAnQ-CSN therefore demands that a satisfactory agreement be reached as soon as possible, and that it includes an increase in wages.
The president of the union adds that the representative of the Treasury secretariat in the negotiations has changed several times. “It’s difficult right now. It complicates the process and it forces us to start over each time, ”laments Mme Cossette.
Meanwhile, departures are increasing internally, which deprives the institution of the expertise it needs, she argues. The union had some 370 members a year ago, compared to 340 today. And that’s not to mention the employees who are considering leaving the institution to improve their working (and living) conditions. “With such a low salary, the problems of attraction and retention persist, and it is even more difficult in the context of labor scarcity that we all know. It is time to act”, insists the president of the union.
Contacted by The duty, the Treasury Board declined to comment, having given the BAnQ a negotiating mandate as it does for all other organizations outside the public service. For its part, the BAnQ indicated that it could not comment on the negotiations in progress.