The year 2021 in the world of work could not have been more eventful, being marked by fragmented negotiations in the public sector, a last-minute agreement in the construction industry and the strike in the childcare centers.
And that’s without counting the repercussions of the scarcity of manpower in many sectors, which pushed the government to develop or refine many training or re-qualification programs. Because of this scarcity of labor, too, many businesses have had to tighten their hours of operation, and employers have had to resolve to raise wages and improve working conditions.
Public sector: we are starting again soon!
This time around, the public sector negotiations took place without a common inter-union front, making the negotiation process more complex. In fact, the negotiations to conclude the 2020-2023 agreements have been so long… that they will start again soon to renew the next collective agreements.
“We will soon be two years late on March 31, which means that the negotiation cycle tells us that we must submit our demands next October. So, on our side, we are recommencing the consultation with our members to find out what the needs are ”, confided in an interview Robert Comeau, president of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS).
It was the FTQ that ended up settling the negotiations first, among the central labor organizations, in May, thus creating the model, the way forward for the other labor organizations.
“The famous psychodrama of public sector negotiation, we should perhaps get out of it. We have a government that wanted to do things differently, but it is still waiting in the last few miles, the last days to come to regulations, ”lamented in an interview Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ.
A fact that makes you think: although nurses had been deemed a priority by the Legault government – ready, he said, to offer them more -, they were the ones who voted most weakly in favor of their agreement in principle. This agreement was only ratified at 54% by the members of the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ).
Construction agreement
The construction industry reserved a nice surprise in 2021, by renewing its four agreements – for each sub-sector of activity – with the Union Alliance. And without a strike. The whole concerns 190,000 workers. The Union Alliance, which brings together the five major unions recognized in the industry, nevertheless had a strike mandate, but it did not exercise it.
Agreements were made and they were ratified in July. However, one of the main points in dispute – the use of mobile applications on workers’ personal phones to record working hours, in particular – has not been resolved in substance. The file has been entrusted to a committee, which must report back by next March.
Strike in childcare centers
The CPEs were the scene of a strike of a few days or indefinitely, as the case may be, by the four union organizations that represent the workers there – FSSS, FIPEQ, SQEES and Steelworkers. But this strike in childcare centers also sparked a fight between Quebec and the unions to gain public sympathy. Rarely have we seen a negotiation take place so much in the public sphere.
Quebec went so far as to announce at a press conference the almost immediate payment of a partial salary increase for educators in childcare centers, while negotiations were still under way. The collective agreements were finally renewed, not without several days of strike being held, which caused many organizational problems for parents.