As the holiday season approaches, the Common Front maintains its objective of obtaining an agreement on December 19, but expresses its dissatisfaction with the slowness of the discussions.
“It’s not progressing at the speed we’d like. We cannot publicly announce that we want to settle before the end of the year and have this rhythm. The government does not behave as if it is urgent,” he told The Press the president of the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), Réjean Leclerc.
Certain sectoral tables were not called to negotiate this weekend. “We have no negotiations, despite the fact that we have been saying for several weeks that we are available seven days a week,” laments Jessica Goldschleger, first vice-president of the Federation of Professionals (FP-CSN) .
“They refused to negotiate at the end of the week. What is the problem ? », Launched the president of the Quebec Union of Service Employees (SQEES-FTQ), Sylvie Nelson, during a press briefing Sunday morning.
The Common Front is on strike from December 8 to 14. After these seven days of strike, all Common Front unions will be consulted on December 18 and 19. Representatives of the Common Front aspire to reach an agreement by December 19.
It’s possible if we negotiate day and night. The problem is that the management side does not have the same level of urgency.
Réjean Leclerc, president of the FSSS-CSN
Significant gap
On Friday, the Common Front submitted a counter-salary offer to the Legault government. At a press scrum Friday, Common Front union leaders gave few details about their new proposal. They simply said that the common front is ready to sign collective agreements lasting more than three years.
The Common Front’s initial request, over three years, included a 9% increase for catch-up, in addition to an increase linked to the consumer price index – the “indexation clause” –, for a total of approximately 23%.
On Thursday, Prime Minister François Legault said he was ready to improve his new offer of salary increases of 12.7% in five years, presented on Wednesday.
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press