Dissatisfied with the progress of the negotiations, the common front of the public sector unions began to grow impatient and raised the threat of a strike.
Union members are particularly outraged by the $30,000 increase in the remuneration of elected officials that the Legault government wants to have adopted through a bill tabled this week.
A thousand union members demonstrated on Saturday in front of the Sherbrooke fairgrounds, where François Legault’s Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is holding its convention this weekend.
“We are asking for a $100 increase per week for all public sector workers, they are going to give themselves $582 in increases per week and they tell us that the $100 is too much! Lamented the first vice-president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), François Enault, in an interview with The Canadian Press with the other union leaders during the demonstration.
“At some point, what’s good for Kitty is good for Kitty!” »
The congress took place under close surveillance and the demonstrators were kept very far away, with an imposing perimeter of barriers, a large deployment of police on foot and on horseback, search procedures at the entrance to the building, etc.
But the union members had a message intended for the CAQ activists gathered to support the government and give a vote of confidence to François Legault.
“When activists from the same party are together, everything is fine, we pat each other on the back, but it’s important to see that outside, it’s real people, people who work for the people of Quebec,” argued the president of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Health Personnel (APTS), Robert Comeau.
Union leaders complained that the negotiations are only moving forward on the issues that the government wants to settle, but not on the issues that the workers want to settle.
“When the government “spins” with two or three priorities, while we have several, we are not able to move forward,” commented the president of the Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ), Éric Gingras. .
Mr. Enault believes that the only negotiating table currently in Quebec where the employer is asking its employees to roll back is between the government and public sector workers.
“There are no negotiations in the private sector where we are asking for rollbacks, while the government is asking us for rollbacks in the pension plan, this is unacceptable! »
The unions denounce the slowness of the negotiations and are in the process of mobilizing the troops.
“We are preparing the movement and in the fall, it is certain that if things do not go well, we will go to see our members to consult them, and if we have to go there, there will be a strike,” assured Mr. Gingras.
“The goal is not to go on strike, we are preparing for it,” said Mr. Comeau, recalling that it takes at least six months of preparation to undertake a strike in the public sector.
“We don’t want to go there, we still think we can get along at the tables [de négociations], but we prepare everything the same, we have no choice. »
The collective agreements of 600,000 state employees expired on March 31.
Quebec has so far offered wage increases of 9% over five years, plus a lump sum of $1,000 and an amount equivalent to 2.5% reserved for “government priorities”. Quebec therefore claims to present an offer of up to 13% over five years.
The common front, for its part, is demanding a $100 per week increase or the consumer price index (CPI) plus 2% for the first year of the employment contracts, whichever formula is most advantageous for the workers, then the CPI plus 3% for the second year and CPI plus 4% for the third year.