When Christmas comes, even the oldest want nothing better than to surrender to its magic. We can no longer count the films recounting the miracles that confuse the most hardened unbelievers.
After weeks of conflict in the public sector, everyone wanted to believe that the agreements reached by the Common Front and the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) with Quebec would make it possible to start the year 2024 on the right foot. Either way, the FIQ nurses remained in their positions, but we liked to imagine that they would end up following suit after a last stand, even if we knew they were tough.
Of course, all the problems in the health and education networks would not be solved at once, but we could at least hope for a cleaner climate. With a little goodwill on both sides, the reforms undertaken last year could gradually begin to bear fruit.
It was apparently an illusion.
Hope is fading as unions and their members decide on the content of the agreements presented to them. The final tally process is quite complex, particularly at the FAE, so it is difficult to predict whether or not agreements will ultimately be approved, but preliminary results, even positive ones, already seem too tight to think that the discontent will disappear.
Not everything is monetizable. Failing to accede to union demands on the organization of work, the government has substantially improved its salary offers after having invoked for months the State’s inability to pay. They are undeniably generous, but there are limits to selling your quality of life.
Arithmetic is stubborn. Insufficient staffing makes overcrowding of classes or greater mobility of nurses inevitable, but no one can be asked to work to the point of exhaustion or to the point of compromising their mental health.
Even if the majority of FAE teachers rejected the agreements, it is unthinkable that they would go back on strike. Their parents would not forgive them and, in any case, they cannot afford it. Furthermore, the media truce that the FIQ imposed on itself a month ago is now over and its president, Julie Bouchard, must take stock with her members on Monday. But a resumption of pressure tactics would undoubtedly be as unproductive for nurses as for teachers.
Rather, we risk witnessing a “phony war”, without strikes or special laws, during which the government and the unions, stuck to their positions, will continue a dialogue of the deaf without any of the belligerents daring to start hostilities. .
Christian Dubé may well find the top gun the most efficient to lead his Santé Québec agency, the latter will achieve nothing without the support of the network’s staff. Likewise, if the new National Institute for Excellence in Education can recommend best practices to Bernard Drainville, what good will it do if teachers continue to jump ship?
An unsatisfactory settlement or negotiations that drag on forever may be preferable to further disruption of services, but it would send a very bad message to those we are trying to attract into the public sector — or simply to convince them to stay there. Who wants a job that seems to cause so much frustration?
On the eve of the holiday break, Prime Minister Legault already knew that things would drag on with the FIQ, but a settlement with all the others would have been a much-needed success to relaunch his mandate. The unusual silence he has observed for two weeks suggests that he has been convinced not to say anything provocative until the agreements have been ratified. Although he probably thought he was doing the right thing, he missed excellent opportunities to keep quiet during the negotiations; he will certainly be able to pull himself together.
This week, the debate on immigration that the housing crisis triggered in the rest of Canada allowed Mr. Legault to find himself on much more favorable ground. Attacking Ottawa has always allowed a Quebec government in difficulty to create a diversion, but that does not solve the problems.
Last month’s Léger poll indicated that the main reason for dissatisfaction with the government was its inability to repair the health and education networks. There are still two and a half years until the next election. He has no time to waste in a “phoney war”.