(Montreal) The Public Sector Union Joint Front is taking action: Starting next week, it will begin consulting its 420,000 members on a strike mandate that could extend to an indefinite general strike, The Canadian Press has learned.
Posted at 7:14 am
Lia Lévesque The Canadian Press
However, the mandate stipulates that the joint front will resort to warning shots and strike “sequences” before an indefinite strike. These can, for example, be strike days that are carried out individually or in groups. Everything will depend on how negotiations with the Quebec government go.
However, the common front excludes a strike that would affect only one sector at a time, for example only education or healthcare. “It is important for the common front, firstly, to show the unity of the common front and, secondly, to show that the strikes will be nationwide, that is, in all the areas of activity that we represent,” explained François Énault in the interview. Vice President of the CSN.
The holding of all such general meetings will last from September 18th to October 13th. This concerns the members of the common front of the public and parastatal sectors, namely those of the CSN, the CSQ, the APTS and the FTQ.
“We don’t have time to fool around here. We should negotiate quickly. That’s not the case. So you have to put pressure on. But we still hope that in the coming weeks, the coming months, someone will hear us and we won’t go there. But we will go where it is necessary to create good working conditions,” said Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, in an interview.
Should a strike actually occur, essential services would be guaranteed. The unions undertake to respect any decision of the Administrative Labor Court in this regard.
9% versus 21% and 30%
Negotiations between trade union organizations and the Treasury Board and the relevant ministries have been ongoing for months. The union’s demands were submitted last fall, Quebec’s offer in December. The collective agreements expired on March 31st.
The president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, reports that her members are angry and even “offended” by the government’s offer, which as of December 2022 stands at 9% over five years and a lump sum of $ 1,000, despite the context of inflation .
Ms Picard speaks of “arrogance” on the part of the Legault government and wonders whether it does not act this way because the public sector is predominantly women. “We have the right to question ourselves. How come the same employer, the government, recognizes that it is entitled to 30%? [d’augmentations]that the Sûreté du Québec is entitled to 21%. And will the 420,000 workers under his leadership, 78% of whom are women, now be offered 9%? » protests Ms. Picard.
“We are actually in a deaf dialogue where we publicly say that we are talking to each other. It’s true that we talk to each other. But specifically, here at the table we are only talking about the government’s solutions, which consist of keeping people in work longer, changing pension insurance rules and increasing the number of hours per week for certain jobs. ” criticized the President of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS), Robert Comeau.
Union members also have suggestions for solutions to the problems that have arisen in the networks and want to talk about them, adds Mr. Comeau.