A big day of demonstrations is expected throughout the province: nearly 600,000 public sector workers are taking to the streets this Thursday to demand better working conditions.
Red hats screwed on their heads, bells in hand, teachers got up early in the morning to demonstrate in front of every school in Montreal this Thursday. They are members of the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), which is starting an indefinite general strike.
Carolane Sauvé-Tétreault is among them. The 32-year-old teacher says that in five years in the profession, she has seen working conditions deteriorate.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Carolane Sauvé-Tétreault
“I don’t want to be part of the famous statistics of new teachers leaving the profession,” she says. Nearly one in five Quebec teachers abandons this job within the first five years.
“What we want is for the government to hear us. We’re going to go all the way. We are going to do what is necessary for the future of public schools,” says the teacher at Saint-Anselme primary school, in the Centre-Sud district.
The president of the Montreal Teachers’ Alliance says she wants a quick agreement with Quebec.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre (foreground)
“We want this to be resolved quickly. We know that the shortage is enormous, the loss of teachers continues to occur. We have to slow this down. At the moment, we don’t feel that the government really has a desire to tackle the underlying problem,” says Catherine Beauvais-St-Pierre.
“Public schools are dying and cannot go lower than they are at the moment,” believes M.me Beauvais-St-Pierre.
An English teacher for more than 20 years, Eddy Peh says children “deserve stability”.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Eddie Peh
“We lack teachers, we lack support staff. We are here for the children, but now it is the government’s turn to show that it supports us,” says Mr. Peh.
Thursday noon, members of the FAE from across Quebec will meet at Jarry Park in Montreal, where a large march will take place. The unions are expecting tens of thousands of people.
For their part, Common Front union members will march from 10 a.m. from Collège de Maisonneuve, the “culmination of three days of walkouts”.