If there is no agreement with the Autonomous Education Federation by the end of the week, students in establishments unionized by the FAE will have missed a total of 24 consecutive days of school.
It’s huge!
When we think that a large majority of young people have been impacted by school closures during the pandemic, we are sacrificing an entire generation.
During this time, private students have not missed a day of teaching while those who are unionized by a Common Front teacher will have only missed a few days.
Thus, we are left with three categories of students, who will not all have the same level of education next June.
- Listen to the political meeting with Yasmine Abdelfadel and Marc-André Leclerc via QUB radio:
Excessive expectations
We currently feel that the expectations of union members are very high. Union leaders no longer have the choice of obtaining meaningful results if they want their members to approve an agreement.
For its part, the government does not seem to be in much of a hurry. After several weeks of the FAE strike, we are slowly beginning to sense a sense of urgency on the part of Sonia LeBel and her colleagues.
The unions and the government believe that the next collective agreement will settle the last fifty years and solidify the next thirty. However, we must not think that we will resolve everything now.
Special law
If the government does not reach an agreement with the FAE by the end of the year, it will have to ask itself whether we can afford to delay the start of the winter school year.
Of course, the answer is no.
If the government fails to agree, it will have no choice but to pass special legislation. Thus, François Legault will have to take his responsibilities and tell us what he wants to do for our education network.
In three years, voters will be able to decide whether it was the right thing to do. Until then, our young people deserve an education and deserve to be taken care of.