Many destitute teachers from the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) were able to take advantage of the public’s generosity to collect food and grocery store gift certificates on Saturday during donation drives organized by their colleagues across the country. of the province. A balm for many who, after two weeks of strike without pay, are struggling.
After stopping contributing to her RRSPs, canceling her disability insurance and even her Netflix subscription, substitute Meriem Benhadry had few options remaining to feed her three children.
“Honestly, we’re starting to think it’s been a long time. It ruins the financial reserves and I have lessons too,” testified the one who is completing a certificate in support of primary education, in front of the Anjou Youth Center on Saturday.
At this location, as at many other drop-off points throughout the province, volunteers and teachers who are members of the FAE distributed food, clothing and hygiene products received in the morning from numerous donors.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
“Grocery gift cards, that’s what we said we needed. We had donations of clothes, and even if some clothes and some games were gone, people really came to get food,” says the person in charge of the collection point and teacher of 2e cycle at Des Roseraies Élisabeth Bourassa primary school.
Across Quebec
In all, around a hundred people came to get supplies between noon and 2 p.m., she said. “Even that there are around twenty teachers that we had to return because there was nothing left. It worked, there are needs,” she adds before interrupting her sentence to welcome a new person who has come to make a donation.
The initiative, through a group on Facebook, Entraide pour les profs en strike, made it possible to organize in just a few days around ten collection points across the province, in Montreal, Quebec, Gatineau, Blainville and Granby, among others.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Distribution of donations and foodstuffs by and for striking FAE teachers in Laval
In Laval, in a parking lot on Boulevard de la Concorde Est, a group of volunteers had set up tables always filled with numerous clothes at the beginning of the afternoon. Seventeen boxes of fruits and vegetables were delivered there in the morning, teachers from the Laval Hotel and Administration School had cooked soup for the occasion.
“That’s what’s beautiful to see, is that society is ready to support us at a time when it’s difficult, financially and morally,” rejoices the volunteer and teacher at the Val-Primary School. des-Ruisseaux Claudine Lefebvre.
“For many, you see that it’s difficult”
But by 1:30 p.m., all the food and grocery store gift certificates collected that morning had already been donated, an indication that many teachers are finding times tough.
For many of them, coming to collect these donations “was emotional,” confirms Claudine Lefebvre. “The needs are there,” she notes, adding that she has counted at least a hundred teachers who have come to take advantage of this generosity.
“For many people, you see it’s difficult. We are people who give so much of ourselves that it is difficult for many to ask in return,” underlines Stéphanie Larocque, teacher at Le Tandem primary school in Laval, who also came to lend a hand with the distribution. exterior despite the weather.
“This is the first time we’ve done this. [venir chercher des dons], but we’re starting to get a little tight,” testified a primary school teacher, a single mother, who came to collect some belongings and who preferred to remain anonymous. “Even with the salary we make, which is not horrible, it’s not easy. Groceries are getting more and more expensive. »
In Laval, we expect to continue collecting and donating next weekend, if the strike lasts until then. At the CSS de la Pointe-de-l’Île, teacher Élisabeth Bourassa insists that networks be set up in each school to ensure that no one lacks anything.
The 66,500 FAE teachers have been on an indefinite general strike since November 23, without strike funds. These teachers work in classrooms in Montreal, Laval, Quebec, Outaouais, Montérégie, Laurentides and Estrie. They represent approximately 40% of teachers in Quebec.