“If the work continues as it has been doing since Friday, we are hopeful that the negotiations could give interesting signs,” said Sunday evening the president of the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ), Josée Scalabrini. , in a video posted on Facebook. However, an agreement is not within reach for the union, which represents some 95,000 teachers.
“Have things progressed since Friday? Yes. Are we close to reaching an agreement in principle? No. Can we still hope to settle before December 23? Certainly ! “, said the president in her speech.
The issues of class composition and lightening of the task always cause pitfalls at the negotiating table, according to Mme Scalabrini. To keep teachers in the network, “we need air, we need help, and that’s what we are trying hard to place with the government,” she said.
“We must let our negotiating teams work,” also recognizes M.me Scalabrini, after congratulating union members for their mobilization last week. The FSE-CSQ is a member of the Common Front and went on strike from December 8 to 14.
Nothing to report to the FAE
As for the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE), no update on the status of negotiations was available on Sunday evening. The approximately 66,500 primary and secondary teachers who are members of the FAE have been on an indefinite general strike since November 23 and have no strike funds.
Friday, The duty reported that some teachers affiliated with the FAE are demanding a return to class as the strike drags on, that parents are anxious and that some worry about the effects of the strike on children.
The president of the FAE, Mélanie Hubert, addressed her members in a video on Facebook on Friday evening. She affirmed that negotiations would continue throughout the weekend, but acknowledged that “things are not progressing at the desired pace.”
Children who attend schools whose teachers are represented by the FAE will therefore not return to class on Monday, as Prime Minister François Legault suggested last Wednesday.