The increases for some 420,000 Common Front workers would amount to 17.4% over five years, according to information leaked on the union group’s website.
“In terms of salaries, the Common Front obtained increases of 17.4% over five years, which are accompanied by a purchasing power protection clause for each of the last three years of the collective agreement, as well as as many improvements in working conditions,” it reads.
The page, which is no longer on the website, was registered by Google on 1er January 2024, at 08:26 GMT (i.e. 03:26 in Montreal), four days after the conclusion of an agreement between the Common Front and Quebec.
To this salary increase, we continue, “are added significant gains concerning group insurance and vacations, in addition to elements relating to parental rights, the attraction and retention of specialized workers and psychologists in particular” .
“Regarding the pension system, some improvements have been obtained and major setbacks have been avoided. All of this adds up to several improvements obtained in sectoral agreements,” also writes the Common Front.
Towards a global agreement in principle
On Wednesday, the Common Front refused to confirm the information published online. An update on its representatives must be made after requests from its member federations.
The office of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, also indicated that it would not comment.
The document posted online specifies that a detailed communication regarding the draft agreement in principle concluded with Quebec will be sent to Common Front union members “around January 7.”
Until then, the four member federations of the Common Front (CSN, CSQ, FTQ and APTS) were to convene their delegations in order to present to them the content of the proposed agreements concluded at the central table and at the sectoral tables in order to determine whether they constitute a global agreement in principle. Union members will then be invited to vote on these agreements in principle at general meetings.
Significant differences
Before Christmas, the Common Front said it was ready to sign five-year collective agreements, but no longer quantified its demands over this period. At the start of the negotiations, he instead demanded increases of around 23% over three years.
Quebec, for its part, had sent the signal that it was ready to increase its last offer of salary increases by 12.7% in five years. For the same period, the Common Front had initially recently demanded an indexation clause of 18.1% to cover the increase in the cost of living and a salary increase of 7% for “enrichment”. He has questioned the 7% increase since then.
The Common Front also repeated that “to conclude an agreement at the central table, there must be progress” regarding insurance and specialized workers, “as well as regarding working conditions at the different sectoral tables” .