The press conference by François Legault and his ministers Bernard Drainville and Sonia LeBel was unpleasant, according to Marc Ranger, former director of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Quebec.
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In an interview with LCN, he admitted he had difficulty explaining the departure of the prime minister, who announced that the pay rises given to teachers would contribute to a next budget that would be “largely in deficit”.
“I don’t understand why he brought up this topic this afternoon,” Marc Ranger proclaims.
He stressed that the Common Front had not yet taken stock of its meetings. According to him, the Legault government should have dedicated the entire press conference on Sunday to the education issue.
“I understand that there has been unprecedented investment in education. Salaries have been increased and it is a financial framework that is really interesting. But of course we know that in the education sector there was the whole question of work organization,” mentions Marc Ranger.
The former director of CUPE in Quebec would have liked François Legault and his team to have reached out to the teachers, especially because of the very close votes that allowed the adoption of the agreement between the government and the unions. He would also have liked the Prime Minister to have spoken about the problems that still exist and his desire to resolve them.
“I expected there would be a call to the 150,000 teachers in Quebec to say, ‘I need you. If we're talking about valorization, then I'm here…” “Let's go,” Mr. Ranger announces.
As for the statement by Education Minister Bernard Drainville, who said he expected positive changes after the agreement with the unions, “he should have been a little embarrassed,” says Marc Ranger.
“It's okay to be optimistic because I think we need to change the tone a little bit to restore hope, but for that he needs 150,000 teachers on board,” he adds.
The latter is also of the opinion that the press conference on Sunday was poorly received by the unions.
“I think there is a missed opportunity. “There is a deadline that was missed,” Mr. Ranger claims.