(Montreal) The FIQ predicts a “hot” fall, unless the Legault government changes course in its negotiations with the nurses.
Quebec will have to “review its offers considerably upwards”, warned the large union organization of 80,000 nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists.
The FIQ held its extraordinary federal council in Sherbrooke on Tuesday to take stock of the negotiation of collective agreements with Quebec. The delegates thus demonstrated in the streets of Sherbrooke, behind their banner “There are limits” – the slogan of the present negotiations.
It was on this occasion that the FIQ unveiled the results of the consultation it conducted with its members on the offers of the Government of Quebec. There are thus 37,294 members who expressed their opinion on the government offers and 90% considered them unsatisfactory in terms of salary, indicated the Interprofessional Federation of Health.
“The salary offers and the modification of the retirement criteria are among the elements that deeply and overwhelmingly irritate the healthcare professionals,” reported the president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard.
Although the pace of negotiations with unions in the public and parapublic sectors has finally accelerated, after months the parties are still far from each other. And this is also the case with the FIQ.
The FIQ plan
The FIQ has already adopted its mobilization plan, which provides for a gradation of pressure tactics.
“We already have an action and mobilization plan approved by the delegation. The planned actions are part of a crescendo perspective, including heavier means of pressure that could be deployed if the situation requires it. Everything is on the table and the determination of the healthcare professionals to be heard is quite palpable in all the establishments”, warned the vice-president of the FIQ and co-responsible for negotiations, Nathalie Levesque.
In general, Quebec offers all government employees 9% increases over five years, plus a lump sum of $1,000 and an amount equivalent to 2.5% reserved for “government priorities” – this which makes him evaluate his offer at 13%.
“It may be a hot fall,” Prime Minister François Legault himself warned in recent days.
He had also maintained that the negotiation of collective agreements was “not easy with the FIQ among others”.
The Premier had said that he expected the FIQ to have “greater flexibility”, in particular for the development of schedules at the local level, in order to provide “premiums in the right places”. He also said he wanted to encourage full-time work with bonuses.
The FIQ wants to facilitate work-family-personal life balance through a set of measures. She also wants to achieve safe nurse-patient ratios to deliver better care and achieve an appropriate workload. She has been trying for years to eliminate mandatory overtime as a way of managing absences. She also asked for improvements to the holidays.