Québec Federation of Labor (FTQ) President Magali Picard is shocked by Prime Minister François Legault’s stance.
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On Saturday morning the prime minister attacked the union leaders. In a message published on social networks, he particularly regretted the “logic of closure” of the unions in collective bargaining. These end on March 31st and affect many public sector employees.
Magali Picard told LCN that her awakening on Saturday morning was “brutal”.
“It’s extremely shocking,” she told LCN. I can’t tell you how disappointed we are. This morning [samedi], it was a rude awakening when the Prime Minister said he was waiting for us, when the truth is quite the opposite. It’s been weeks and months since we’ve shared our demand books and we’re always awaiting trial dates.
“What Premier Legault is doing right now is playing a pretty dangerous game,” she continued. It’s an old misinformation approach being introduced, although I absolutely don’t understand its intent.
No more “fidgeting”
Magali Picard called on the government to take action as she believes union officials want to be at the heart of the solution
“You will never hear from any representative or union leader that they are not willing to work on their proposals,” she said. We have some very innovative proposals. We come out of what we have done in the past because we know that urgency. Health network employees have ideas and suggestions […]We have hundreds of suggestions. I could spend the day.”
However, the president of the FTQ refused to explain them in order not to negotiate publicly.
“I can’t afford that because I blame the Legault government for negotiating in the public square and raising expectations and frustrations,” Magali Picard said. We have committed not to do this. We have 14 sector tables and one central table. It should be here.”
“The government doesn’t seem to know where they’re going,” she added. He wants to initiate a public debate to collect ideas. One thing is for sure, he’ll sit down at the tables and we’ll stop bickering about the media.