The Common Front maintains its threat of an indefinite general strike after the holidays. With 420,000 public sector workers on the streets, a walkout would paralyze Quebec’s schools, in addition to affecting the health network and other services to citizens.
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The union leaders of the Common Front (FTQ, CSN, CSQ, APTS) announced the decision of their authorities, meeting the day before to establish the game plan after the seven days of strike which ended last week.
The delegates supported the launching of an indefinite general strike at the beginning of 2024, if no agreement is reached with Quebec by then, announced François Enault, first vice-president of the CSN.
“It is still possible to have a settlement by the end of the year, but we have to make efforts and lower the necessary mandates,” he says.
Accelerate the pace
The Common Front is therefore calling for an acceleration of talks, both at the sectoral tables and at the central table.
Mr. Enault denounces yo-yo negotiations. “It takes serious deposits to settle,” he said.
“We will not accept employment conditions that will not improve our networks,” summarized the president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, alongside him.
There is no question, however, of announcing for the moment the date of the start of a possible indefinite general strike. “We don’t want to put a date, firstly because there is an element of surprise. We want to analyze things. But it’s not a bluff,” assured François Enault.
The union members, he said, are ready to take to the streets “tomorrow morning.”
On a scale of 1 to 10, the first vice-president of the CSN estimates the progress of the work at 6.5 at the central table and 5 at the sectoral tables.
“But this is the kind of thing that can be resolved, as we said earlier, at the tables in 48 hours, in 72 hours,” underlined the president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras.
Offer refused
The latter believes that the new proposal, tabled the day before by Quebec in order to resolve the situation with teachers, “was not up to par”.
“As for the composition of the class, there are requests from the federation, we have no openness. And we say that, for example, help in class will solve everything. We are still on the same bases as we denounced several weeks ago,” explains Mr. Gingras.
The FSE and the APEQ, which represent teachers within the CSQ, will also table a new offer at the sectoral table today in an attempt to move forward on union priorities, namely the composition of the class and the lightening of the task.
The other large organization that represents teachers, the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), has not yet reacted to Quebec’s new proposal.
Public opinion
One thing is certain, the Common Front believes it has public opinion on its side.
It is rather the Legault government which is paying the price for this conflict which has dragged on since the beginning of the fall, say union leaders. “You have seen, like us, the polls. It is in free fall,” says Magali Picard.