While some are positive about the acceptance of the agreement of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) announced on Friday, teachers fear that it will not alleviate either the staff shortage or the problems plaguing schools.
The agreement in principle concluded between Quebec and the FAE was adopted Friday thanks to the vote of 50.58% in favor of the last union called to decide.
“I think it’s good news,” said the former union leader of the CSN, Jacques Létourneau.
“If they rejected the agreement, they would have to restart negotiations and that placed them in a situation where there was almost no balance of power left to try to improve the sectoral agreement.” The FAE would perhaps have been able to slightly improve working conditions, “but the agreement would not have been fundamentally different,” he thinks.
However, he considers that the close vote in favor of the agreement sends a message to the government. “It shows that it’s not enough. Teachers are at their wits’ end. Expectations were very high, but it was certain that negotiation was not going to resolve everything either.”
He remains hopeful that the dialogue between the government and the unions will continue. “We have to find how to attract workers, keep staff and resolve class composition problems,” he explains.
A “hugely disappointing” sectoral agreement
Many teachers, however, express their disappointment with the acceptance of the agreement. ” I’m disappointed. This agreement will not improve the shortage and poor conditions in schools,” says secondary school teacher Jean-Sébastien Draws, who is now considering going to teach in the private sector.
He considers the intersectoral part, i.e. salary and retirement, suitable, but the sectoral part “hugely disappointing”. “There is nothing in the agreement that will change things. It will have been 22 days wasted,” he said, referring to the indefinite general strike that took place in November and December.
“I am ashamed of my Federation. My Federation has always said that it would never sign a discounted agreement. This is what was done,” says the primary school special education teacher, Francis-Germain Jannard. He is also sad to see that several of his colleagues did not participate in the vote.
The Basses-Laurentides teacher would have liked better measures surrounding the composition of the class. “We receive students with very specific needs in our classes who could have been sent to other, much more suitable classes. »
Think about the voting procedure
“One thing is certain, the FAE must revisit the way it conducts its consultations,” says Jacques Létourneau. It’s certain that with an assembly that ends at 2 a.m., half of them are asleep behind their screen. There is something not working. »
“This is the opposite of what we ask of our students. Doing evaluations at the end of the day should be avoided. So for us too to make an informed choice at the start of the night is not very human,” adds Caroline, a high school teacher who preferred to keep her last name silent for fear of reprisals.
“The union structure must be modernized,” also believes Manon Bélisle, a preschool teacher for 36 years. “Middle of the night votes keep only the most convinced and restrict the right to vote of members who have parental responsibilities or a very demanding and hot group of students. Teaching the day after a sleepless night is very difficult and sometimes even dangerous. »
She would also have liked the members to be the first to receive the agreement before the information circulated in the media and for the FAE to broadcast uniform presentation videos for the nine unions.