After their colleagues from the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Gaspésie and Bas-St-Laurent, it is the turn of legal aid lawyers in Montreal and Laval to vote unanimously for a strike mandate of three days during a general meeting held on Monday evening, learned The duty.
“It is therefore all the unions of legal aid lawyers affiliated with the CSN that could go on strike over the next few days in order to increase the pressure on the Treasury Board, which refuses to grant negotiation mandates which would make it possible to maintain pay parity with the Crown prosecutors employed by Quebec”, can we read in the press release.
It should be noted that the collective agreement of the 400 legal aid lawyers, which expired on December 31, 2019, recognized the principle of parity between legal aid lawyers and Crown prosecutors. However, the representatives of the Treasury Board publicly affirmed last week that they did not have the mandate to maintain this parity. “It’s as if we had to jump through the hoops every three years to regain what we have already acquired,” laments Justine Lambert-Boulianne, president of the Montreal union and member of the national bargaining committee, in an interview. with The duty.
“Since we are called upon to plead the same cases before the same courts, there has always been pay parity between these two groups of lawyers from the Quebec state,” she recalls.
While the primary objective of these strike mandates is to get the message across to Treasury Board, legal aid lawyers also want the government to back up its promises on access to housing, domestic violence, protection youth with the reality on the ground.
“The lawyers who are at the front for these people are the legal aid lawyers,” adds Ms.and Lambert-Boulianne. At the moment, the government’s rhetoric is not at all reflected in the salary offers it is making to us. »