(Quebec) The Common Union Front issues an ultimatum to the government: if there is no agreement by the end of the year, its 420,000 workers will be on an indefinite general strike in January. And this is not an empty threat, he warns.
“There is no bluff”, “the situation is serious”, argued the president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, during a press conference with the other union leaders of the Common Front on Wednesday.
She believes that union members always benefit from the “capital of sympathy” of the population. “We don’t have this worry” about losing support, she added, stressing that the government’s rating “seems to be decreasing considerably”. “He’s in free fall,” she insisted.
The progress of the negotiations is barely 5 out of 10 at the sectoral tables on working conditions and 6.5 out of 10 at the central table on salaries, lamented the vice-president of the CSN, François Enault.
At all tables, “the observation is the same: a lot of noise, few results currently,” said the president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras. The Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) rejected the government’s new offer on Tuesday, considering that it is a “show of nonsense” and “a setback in the talks”.
It is still possible to reach an agreement by Christmas or the end of the year, according to the Common Front. But there will be an unlimited general strike in the event of an impasse, he warns without immediately setting a date for the triggering of a walkout.
According to the president of the APTS, Robert Comeau, “the government does not understand the urgency of resolving the situation.” “We want intensive negotiations,” said Magali Picard. For François Enault, a “blitz” is needed to settle employment contracts. “And a blitz is that we should meet for more than 15 minutes a day! » he said.
“The 11 days of strike that we had, we were very good players,” he added. We did not want to take the population hostage. We did that correctly. But it seems that the government, that’s what it wants, it wants to bring us into an unlimited general strike. If that’s what he wants, he’s going to get it. But that’s not what we want. What we want is to properly regulate the working conditions for our members. »
To obtain an agreement, the government must give clear mandates to its negotiators at the sectoral tables and not limit itself to putting forward its priorities, including the famous flexibility in collective conditions, affirms the Common Front. On salaries, he calls for an indexation clause to cover the increase in the cost of living and an “enrichment” which he does not quantify for the moment.
“We are not going to return on our knees,” warned Magali Picard.