The common front of the public sector believes that “momentum is finally building” in the negotiations, thanks to the intervention of a conciliator.
During a meeting with the press, Wednesday morning in Montreal, the four union leaders of the CSQ, the CSN, the APTS and the FTQ took stock of the negotiations and the strikes, in this second of a sequence of three days of strike by the common front of 420,000 members.
A few days ago, the common front requested the intervention of a conciliator — an unusual request at this stage of the negotiation process.
However, the conciliator already met the common front negotiating team last Monday. He was still at work on Tuesday, with the help of a second conciliator, revealed CSN vice-president François Enault.
And discussions should resume Wednesday afternoon and Thursday in Quebec, he added.
“What we wanted was for us to have rigor, for us to have movement at the negotiating table. And what we’ve been hearing since yesterday – there’s nothing settled – but at the very least, there’s momentum building. The conciliators are doing the job we wanted, namely so that the government can sit down and give us answers to what we have been waiting for for months,” summarized Mr. Enault.
Quebec and the common front do not, however, agree on the content of the conciliator’s mandate. Quebec maintains that the question of salaries must be excluded, under the law which governs the negotiation regime in the public sector, as well as the pension plan. But the common front maintains that the conciliator is not restricted as a mediator, according to this law, and that he can try to promote rapprochement also on these questions.