Prime Minister François Legault, with the complicity of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, has pulled a rabbit out of his hat at the very moment when public sector negotiations have barely begun. It creates three forums outside the traditional negotiation table in order to “discuss differently to change things” in the health and education networks.
The problem is that negotiations in Quebec have been governed by law for ages. The Labor Code was made so that people could negotiate as equals, while the forums would allow the government to choose and control the subjects discussed, while evading the laws that frame the negotiations.
For their part, the unions have been criticizing the government for weeks for the slowness of the talks at the table, where, they say, they are ready to solve the problems plaguing these two networks. They feel that with its forums, the government is trying to circumvent the normal negotiation process.
In reality, the management negotiating committee, headed by Sonia LeBel, is trying to confuse the discussions, even the chatter, that will come out of these forums and then take them over again when the time comes to go to the negotiation tables. .
Finally, the traditional negotiation process, even if it often proves difficult, has proven its worth, and it is not the forums of the President of the Conseil du trésor that will help to speed up any form of settlement… In my opinion, it would be quite the opposite!