The dominoes are starting to fall: after the largest teachers’ union yesterday, the Legault government finally reached an agreement with the largest group of health workers early Saturday evening.
In a communication sent to its members, the negotiating committee of the Federation of Health and Social Services – CSN (FSSS-CSN), which represents 120,000 workers, indicates that it has reached “a hypothesis of agreement in principle” with the government.
Negotiated at a so-called “sectoral” table where issues specific to healthcare workers are discussed, this hypothesis of an agreement in principle therefore affects their “working conditions”, specifies the FSSS-CSN.
In theory, this agreement should be submitted to union delegates to be ratified before being presented to members of the FSSS-CSN during general meetings. However, the union warns that delegates will only be informed of its content “when we have an agreement in principle for both the sectoral table and the central table”.
Because negotiations continue during this time at the so-called “central” head where the Common Front, of which the FSSS-CSN is a part, negotiates with the government on issues relating to the salaries of public sector employees in particular.
At the “central” table
Negotiations continued there until 2 a.m. Saturday and work was expected to resume quickly. A positive sign: the government and the Common Front maintain that it is possible that a settlement can be reached by December 25.
The FSSS-CSN, however, affirms “the problem remains unresolved with regard to the central table issues” and affirms that “the salary issues will have to be resolved in order to avoid an unlimited general strike of the Common Front at the start of 2024” .
The FSSS-CSN, which notably represents nurses and office and technical staff in the health network, is the largest sectoral negotiation table. With the Common Front, the grouping has so far engaged in three episodes of strike, for a total of 11 days.
Failing to find an agreement before the end of the year, the Common Front, including the FSSS-CSN, threatened an unlimited general strike in 2024.
With Léa Carrier, The Press