There likely won't be an agreement between the Autonomous Education Federation and the Quebec government as a Christmas present. The union, which unites 66,000 people, announces that “negotiations will continue.”
“Many of you ask us about the latest news. Negotiations between the FAE and the government are ongoing, the union announced on its Facebook page on Sunday evening. We will get back to you with the details as soon as possible.”
An hour earlier, we also learned that negotiations between the Common Front, which does not include the Autonomous Education Federation, and Quebec will continue on December 26, Tuesday.
The FAE has been on an indefinite general strike since November 23rd. Its members, who have no strike pay, have therefore been without pay for a month.
“I admit that we are exhausted. “We just want to go back to school, see our students again, that's all we ask for,” Thassadith Hamis, who teaches at a school in Montreal-Nord, told Le Devoir during a demonstration on Friday outside the premier's offices Minister, François Legault.
“The more the CAQ despises us, the more we mobilize,” protesters began chanting in downtown Montreal, placards in hand. “The CAQ should light up before Christmas,” one protester declared, while others sounded trumpets and horns.
Later that day, the Federation of Education Unions (FSE-CSQ) and the Provincial Association of Teachers of Quebec (APEQ) approved a proposed employer-side agreement.
And the office of Treasury President Sonia LeBel said it had begun a period of intensive negotiations with the FAE in the hope of reaching a proposed agreement before Christmas.
The “conditions” imposed by the government as part of these negotiations exclude the possibility of resolving this labor dispute before students return to class on January 8, the FAE announced in a press release on the same day. “For this reason, the indefinite general strike will continue even after the holidays,” confirmed the trade union federation, which assured that its teams “will be available for negotiations even during the holidays if necessary.”
“We always had the goal of reaching an agreement before the holidays, but we will not sign a concessionary agreement,” FAE President Mélanie Hubert said afterwards in an interview with Radio-Canada on Saturday.