The Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) is asking the Minister of Education to show “flexibility” in the application of the catch-up plan which will be presented on Tuesday.
“Our message is really to go into the communities, to allow flexibility,” said the president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras, at a press conference Monday morning.
According to him, needs will differ from one region to another and even from one establishment to another. It is therefore the people on the ground — its members — who are best placed to determine what should apply based on the specific needs of each environment. “We don’t want wall to wall. We also don’t want to have things imposed on us. We think that the midfielders can roll up their sleeves and decide. And in this sense, what we want is to have flexibility in the environments and to make collective decisions. That’s the very basis. »
The Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), which is not part of the Common Front, has been on an indefinite general strike since November 23, 2023. But in schools represented by Common Front staff, students have only missed “a total of eight days spread over several weeks,” recalls Éric Gingras. There is no need, he believes, to cancel spring break or extend the school year. “Are there any adjustments? We are ready to discuss it, but from there to talking about extending the school year, removing the spring break, I think we are moving into something else, I will put it like that. »
Consultations
The Federation of Education Unions (FSE), which is affiliated with the CSQ, was invited to discuss the catch-up plan with the minister’s team, but this only represents part of the members who work in the schools and who should also have been met, deplores the president. “Neither our support staff nor our professionals were invited to this information meeting,” denounced Éric Gingras. At the central office, this is one of the criticisms we make. »
He also believes that this type of consultation process is not optimal. “We were more informed [que consultés], he explained. It is certain that after that, we are invited to be able to discuss, but we are not in the construction of projects. For the future, in education, we have to get out of this. You have to be upstream. We must be able to say: here are the issues and perhaps we are able to propose things beyond simply being informed. »
An avoidable “psychodrama”
The president of the CSQ, Éric Gingras, also believes that we must learn lessons from the recent conflict which paralyzed the public sector. “The psychodrama of public sector negotiation, I think it can be done differently,” he said.
He intends to wait for his members to decide on the agreement reached at the end of December before making the official assessment, but already, he is quite critical of the process which has stretched over a much too long period.
“Do we need in Quebec to have a negotiation that lasts more than a year and a half? We need to tell ourselves that today. I don’t need to wait for the results to say that it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense that in Quebec we wait until December 28 to arrive at a result. We will decide on the level of the result in the coming weeks, but on December 28, couldn’t we have done that before? The answer is yes. »
According to him, reflection is needed to prevent this type of situation from happening again. “I think it is the population who can put the best pressure on the government to say: never again.
The president of the CSQ believes that his members would also be happy to prevent the situation from degenerating to the point of forcing them to go on strike. “If you ask the members I represent: could we never go on strike again but still achieve good working conditions? They will all say yes to you. So, that’s the question to ask yourself. »
But the problem, according to him, is not the strike – one of the only means available to the union to make itself heard on the employers’ side – but the starting positions, which were polar opposites. “If we were able to discuss without starting so far away. The government tabled ridiculous offers in December 2022 with 9%, when we were coming out of the pandemic and had a shortage problem. Why did you start like that? The question is valid. But we’re going to have to agree first to say: can we do things differently? »