After progress was made in negotiations to renew collective agreements in the public sector, negotiations were suspended at the end of the week and will resume after Christmas, Quebec said.
“Negotiations will continue on December 26, 2023,” Treasury Department President Sonia LeBel simply wrote in a release broadcast on X, formerly Twitter, around 6 p.m. Sunday evening.
The CSQ also confirmed this information on its X page.
In recent days, several advances have been made at the sectoral tables in the health and education sectors, while the unions have announced that they have reached preliminary agreements in principle on their working conditions.
Late on Sunday afternoon, the government announced that it had agreed on sectoral solutions with nine associations of the CSQ and the eight associations of the CSN.
The Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) and the College Council of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which are affiliated with the FTQ, also announced on Sunday that they had reached an agreement in principle for a night of intense work Work at the industry negotiating table.
The APTS represents 65,000 members in health and social services.
Profits
“For just over a year, we have been working hard to improve the conditions of practice and practice of the professionals and technicians who are members of the APTS and to better recognize their expertise in order to address the labor shortage and work overload in our public network,” explained Robert Comeau , president of APTS, in a press release on Sunday morning.
“The gains made today would drive attraction and retention within our 108 job titles,” said Mr. Comeau, whose union is a member of the all-union Common Front in the current public sector negotiations.
In addition, the General Council of the APTS will only decide if there is a hypothesis of agreement at the central table whether there is a fundamental agreement, which will be presented to its members for a vote in the General Assembly.
The government confirmed the news late Sunday morning. No further details were provided other than that the possible agreement would last for five years.
A few hours later, it was the turn of the College Council, also a member of the Common Front, to make a similar announcement. The union also recalled that “this settlement hypothesis [était] combined with an agreement at the central table where salary issues are negotiated. This was the first proposal from a union affiliated to the FTQ.
The Common Front, which includes the CSN, the CSQ, the FTQ and the APTS, represents approximately 420,000 Quebec public sector workers in education, health and social services. In particular, he negotiates salaries and pension plans at the central table.
On Saturday, it was the CSN-affiliated Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN) that got the ball rolling by announcing that it had reached a “hypothetical agreement in principle” with Quebec for the sector. It represents 120,000 healthcare workers.
The agreement will last for five years, from 2023 to 2028, and will cover almost 40% of the workforce in the health and social services network, announced the Office of the President of the Ministry of Finance, Sonia LeBel.
Sectoral agreements in the education sector
At around 9 p.m. on Saturday, the CSQ-affiliated Federation of Quebec Education Professionals (FPPE-CSQ) announced a proposal for a sectoral regulation for the 58 French-speaking school service centers it represents.
“This proposal is aimed at industry-specific working conditions for skilled workers and will be presented to the Federal Council on December 27th,” the union said in a press release. The Council must approve this proposed regulation in order for it to be presented to members.
The day before, the CSQ-affiliated Federation of Education Trade Unions (FSE) and the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (APEQ) agreed to a proposed sectoral settlement with the Legault government as part of negotiations to renew the collective.
The FSE-CSQ represents 95,000 teachers and the APEQ represents members of the English language school network.
A sectoral policy agreement was also announced by the Federation of Professional College Personnel (FPPC-CSQ) on Saturday evening. The agreement targets more than 2,000 professionals.
Then, before dawn on Sunday, the FEESP-CSN CEGEP Support Sector Negotiating Committee confirmed on its Facebook page that it had “reached a hypothesis of agreement in principle with the College Employer Negotiating Committee (CPNC) on sectoral issues affecting working conditions be.” of the CEGEP support staff.”
In the afternoon, it was the turn of the Federation of School Support Personnel (FPSS-CSQ) to develop global settlement proposals with the Employer Bargaining Committee for French-speaking School Service Centers and the Employer Bargaining Committee for English-speaking School Boards.
“Negotiations to renew collective bargaining agreements for school support staff in the Cree and Kativik school boards are ongoing,” we add in the press release.
The FPSS also warns: There is still no regulation at the central intersectoral table. We need to agree on salaries and “other essentials for school support staff” if we want to avoid a resumption of pressure tactics in January.
After all these announcements, the pressure is now increasing on the Autonomous Education Association (FAE) and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), which in this case are not part of the cross-union Common Front. Round of negotiations with the government of Quebec.