(Montreal) The Quebec Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) will not be able to reach an agreement with the provincial government by the end of the year. The union announced on Friday that it would “not hold any strike days until January 15” and that no comments on the negotiations would be made in the media until that date.
Posted at 4:32 p.m.
The arbitrator at the negotiating table calls on the union and management not to discuss current negotiations in the media. The FIQ stated that it had accepted the arbitrator's proposal.
Keep in mind that due to the slow progress in the discussions, on December 19, the FIQ asked the Ministry of Labor to appoint an arbitrator to negotiate with the government on the renewal of collective agreements.
“In order to promote the pursuit of constructive and productive dialogue, the arbitrator recommends that the parties limit comments in public as much as possible until January 15,” states the FIQ, which represents 80,000 nurses, practical nurses and other health professionals .
“This will put all efforts into the negotiations, which will continue intensively and (the media shutdown) will prevent them from being disrupted by inappropriate statements,” the union added in its press release.
In a statement on its website on Friday, the FIQ pointed out that there were still gaps at the negotiating table to reach an agreement proposal.
The Quebec Interprofessional Health Federation remained the only public sector union in Quebec on Friday that had not announced a possible agreement or an agreement in principle with the government.
On Thursday, FIQ said on its Facebook page that it had submitted a new proposal to the employers' party and was “awaiting a response from them.”
The all-union Common Front and the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) have reached agreements with Quebec in recent days.
The FAE confirmed on Thursday that it had reached an agreement in principle with the government that put an end to all government pressure tactics, including the indefinite strike called on November 23.
The common front, which includes the CSN, the CSQ, the APTS and the FTQ and represents around 420,000 public sector workers, also announced a proposal for an agreement in principle with Quebec at the central table, involving negotiated salaries acts.