The President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, now presents her “discussion forums” in the public sector as real “negotiation tables” with the unions, a “place next to” other tables.
In an interview with 98.5 FM host Paul Arcand on Monday, the Minister denied wanting to drown public sector negotiations in a larger whole with her three discussion forums, held in parallel with the real negotiation. The unions refuse to attend.
These three forums – “class team”, “mental health team” and “care team” – are real “negotiation tables”, in the same way as the other negotiation tables in which the unions agree to participate, he added. she argued. She even presented these forums as “an added central table”.
Public sector unions refused to participate in these discussion forums in 2020 and they refused again this time. In 2020, they had however succeeded in renewing the collective agreements for the period 2020-2023 without participating in these forums.
The unions see in these forums a way to drown the fish, to hold endless discussions, when the problems are already known. In their view, it is high time to negotiate clauses in collective agreements to resolve these problems.
But Minister LeBel insists: “It’s a place of negotiation; we have to understand each other. We create a place next door. You can call it an added center table,” she claimed.
Around these vast forums, she would like to bring together all the unions concerned by a given subject, even if they have different demands in connection with their collective agreement and different solutions to the problems raised.
“I won’t have two ways of doing it,” Minister LeBel said. They will have to get along together. »
The nursing staff, for example, is represented mainly by the FIQ, but also by the CSQ, the CSN and the FTQ.
In the field of education, for example, the CSQ represents both elementary and secondary school teachers, support staff and professionals, while the FAE only represents teachers. The union vision and priorities are therefore not always the same.
The fact remains that these discussion forums constitute “an added central table”, “a place next to” the negotiation tables, while the Minister herself deplores the fact that there are already 20 negotiation tables in the health.
Collective agreements covering around 600,000 state employees expire on March 31.
To date, the pace of negotiations has been rather slow, complain the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) and the common front, which includes the CSQ, the FTQ, the CSN and the APTS.
Quebec blames the unions who refuse to change the ways of doing things by participating in its forums in parallel. And the unions blame it on the Quebec government, which is trying to save time and drown the fish with its forums.