The common inter-union front in the public sector is taking action: from next week, it will begin to consult its 420,000 members on a strike mandate which could go as far as an unlimited general strike, we have learned The Canadian Press.
The mandate, however, provides that before coming to an indefinite strike, the common front will resort to warning shots, strike “sequences”. It could, for example, be strike days, taken individually or in groups. Everything will depend on the progress of the negotiations with the Quebec government.
But the common front rules out a strike that would only affect one sector at a time, such as education only or health only. “It is essential for the common front: firstly to show the unity of the common front and, secondly, to show that the strikes will be national, therefore in all the sectors of activity that we represent”, specified in an interview François Énault, vice-president of the CSN.
The holding of all these general assemblies will extend from September 18 to October 13. This concerns members of the common front in the public and parapublic sectors, namely those of the CSN, the CSQ, the APTS and the FTQ.
“We don’t have time to fool around here. We should negotiate quickly. That’s not the case. So you have to put pressure on. But we are hopeful, all the same, that in the coming weeks, the coming months, someone will hear us and that we will not go there. But we will go where it is necessary to go to have good working conditions,” said Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, in an interview.
If a strike were indeed called, essential services would be guaranteed. The unions have undertaken to respect any decision of the Administrative Labor Tribunal in this regard.
9% versus 21% and 30%
Negotiations between union organizations and the Treasury Board and the ministries concerned have been going on for months. The union demands were submitted last fall and the Quebec offer in December. The collective agreements expired on March 31.
The president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, reports that her members are exasperated and even “insulted” by the government offer, which has remained since December 2022 at 9% over five years, with a lump sum of $1,000, despite the context current inflationary.
Mme Picard speaks of “arrogance” on the part of the Legault government and wonders if it is not acting this way because the public sector mainly includes women. “We have the right to question ourselves. How is it that the same employer, the government, recognizes that it is entitled to 30% (increases), that the Sûreté du Québec is entitled to 21%? And, meanwhile, to 420,000 workers under his leadership, who represent 78% women, are they offered 9%? » protests Mme Picard.
“We are really in a dialogue of the deaf where, publicly, we say that we are talking to each other. It’s true that we talk to each other. But, concretely, at the table, we only talk about government solutions, which are to keep people working longer, by modifying the rules of the retirement plan, and by increasing the number of hours per week for certain bodies. “, criticized in turn the president of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS), Robert Comeau.
Union members also have solutions to propose to the problems experienced in the networks and they also want to talk about them, adds Mr. Comeau.