After several weeks of strike which notably paralyzed schools before the holidays, the 420,000 members of the Common Front accepted by 74.8% the agreement in principle concluded with Quebec.
This was announced on Friday by representatives of the unions who met a few months ago to make their demands heard during the renewal of the employment contracts of public sector employees.
Still work to do
While they said they were proud to have managed to reach an agreement, representatives of the CSN, CSQ, FTQ and APTS recalled that there remains “still a lot of work to do.”
“We are turning a page, but now that does not mean that everything is over,” said the president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras, at a press briefing at the National Assembly.
The representatives all insisted on the fact that accepting the agreement with Quebec does not constitute “a blank check” to the Legault government.
“We must not wait for the next negotiations to improve working conditions and the network, we must continue now,” said Robert Comeau, president of the APTS.
“Certain measures that have been given to us are interesting, but there are also some that do not meet all the needs because they are targeted at really restricted groups,” he recalled.
- Listen to the interview with Éric Gingras, president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec via QUB :
Words that don’t get through
The representatives also returned in a press release to the statements of Prime Minister François Legault, who declared last Sunday that these negotiations could have an impact on Quebec’s next “largely deficit” budget.
“Funding public services is not an expense, but an investment. Financing them better is a political choice – the only responsible choice – which must be assumed,” they argued.
For her part, the President of the Treasury Board Sonia LeBel also welcomed the agreements.
“The agreements we have reached are the result of a common desire to negotiate differently and to adapt our ways of doing things to the realities of 2024 in order to improve services to Quebecers,” she said.