Un ras-le-bol : c’est ce qu’expriment ce mardi des dizaines de milliers de travailleurs syndiqués qui sortent dans les rues pour réclamer de meilleures conditions de travail.
Devant l’école spécialisée Irénée-Lussier, à Montréal, des dizaines de manifestants du Front commun entament la première de leurs trois journées de grève, au son de la chanson La manifestation des Cowboys Fringants.
Isabelle Fortier est préposée aux élèves handicapés dans cette école. Elle manifeste pour « [ses] young people”, but also for better working conditions.
“I take care of everything related to hygiene care for the children. We don’t have a big salary and we don’t have great conditions. These days, there is an average of six out of ten: there is a very serious shortage of staff,” she says.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Many motorists showed their support for the strikers by honking their horns.
President of the Federation of Public Service Employees (FEESP – CSN), Annie Charland specifies that support staff in the school network are the least well paid “in the entire network”.
“When we take the average annual salary of our support staff, we have an average of $23,400. These are the figures from the Treasury Board. Our people are below the poverty line,” says Mme Charland.
On Hochelaga Street, many motorists showed their support for the strikers by honking their horns. “What we hear is the sound of the anger of workers,” says Frédéric Brun, vice-president of the FEESP-CSN. “It has to be resolved, the conditions have to be up to the work that is being done. There is determination and solidarity in the Common Front,” says Mr. Brun.
The 420,000 public sector workers represented by the CSN, the CSQ, the FTQ and the APTS (i.e. the Common Front) begin a three-day strike on Tuesday. Unions not belonging to the Common Front will follow suit. The FAE begins an indefinite general strike on Thursday, while the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ), which includes 80,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals, strikes Thursday and Friday.
The latest government offer is a 10.3% salary increase over five years, in addition to a lump sum of $1,000 in the first year. Added to this is a sum equivalent to 3% reserved for “government priorities”, which means that the government presents its offer as worth 14.8% over five years. The unions rejected this offer, calling it “derisory”. They did not make a counter-offer, which is also what Quebec is demanding.