(Montreal) Police officers had to escort employees of the Société des alcools so that they could enter work on Friday morning, when paramedics decided to demonstrate in front of the SAQ distribution centers in Montreal and Quebec. .
Posted at 2:55 p.m.
The union that represents them, at the CSN-affiliated Federation of Health and Social Services, said they had finally left the two places at the start of the afternoon.
The Société des alcools confirmed the end of the demonstration at the beginning of the afternoon.
But, at least for a while, employees could not access the head office, the parking lot and this hindered truck traffic, the SAQ said.
In the morning, the SAQ had considered asking for an injunction to allow free movement around its distribution centers in Montreal and Quebec. She even started the process and served the procedure, before interrupting it, when the paramedics decided to leave the scene.
The SAQ said it did not understand why it was targeted by this demonstration, since it had nothing to do with this negotiation. The employers of paramedics, in fact, are ambulance companies.
The union has warned that it will not stop there, he who also wants to harden his strike in March by trying to provide fewer essential services. “This major action heralds others to come. »
The reasoning of the FSSS is that the Société des alcools is a Crown corporation, therefore “a source of revenue” for the Government of Quebec, which also pays subsidies to ambulance companies.
Several paramedic unions throughout Quebec are on strike, both at the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which is affiliated with the FTQ, and at the Federation of Health and Social Services, which is affiliated with the CSN.
Those from CUPE insisted that they had “nothing to do with it” in the demonstration in front of the SAQ’s distribution centres. Moreover, it is another CUPE local that represents the union members of the SAQ distribution centres.
Some unions have been on strike since last summer, others have been on strike for the past few weeks.
But since they are required to provide very extensive essential services, including carrying out all patient transport and transport between establishments, the strike appears little in the eyes of the public.
The means of pressure that can actually be exercised relate to billing forms, for example, or the return transport of medical personnel who have accompanied a patient in an ambulance.
Limited in their means of pressure, FSSS paramedics wanted to draw attention by demonstrating in front of these SAQ distribution centers.
The points in dispute relate to wages, shift schedules which assume a paramedic is on call 24 hours a day for seven days, meal times and mental health.
The agreements expired on March 31, 2020.
The unions of pre-hospital workers criticize the Quebec government for having forgotten them, since it renewed the collective agreements with the other workers in the health sector.