The common inter-union front in the public sector is taking action: starting next week, it will begin to consult its 420,000 members on a strike mandate which could go as far as an unlimited general strike.
The mandate, however, provides that before coming to an indefinite strike, the common front will resort to warning shots, i.e. strike “sequences”. For example, these could be strike days, taken individually or in groups. Everything will depend on how the negotiations with the Quebec government go.
But the common front excludes a strike which would only affect one sector at a time, such as education only or health only. “It is essential for the common front: firstly to show the unity of the common front and, secondly, to show that the strikes will be national, therefore in all the sectors of activity that we represent”, specified in an interview François Énault, vice-president of the CSN.
The holding of all these general meetings will extend from September 18 to October 13. This concerns the members of the common front of the public and parapublic sectors, namely those of the CSN, the CSQ, the Alliance of Professional and Technical Personnel in Health and Social Services (APTS) and the FTQ.
“We don’t have time to fool around here. We should negotiate quickly. That’s not the case. So you have to put pressure on. But we are hopeful, all the same, that in the coming weeks, the coming months, someone will hear us and that we will not go there. But we will go where it is necessary to go to have good working conditions,” said Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, in an interview.
If a strike were indeed to be called, essential services would be ensured. The unions are committed to respecting any decision of the Administrative Labor Court in this regard.
9% versus 21% and 30%
Negotiations between union organizations and the Treasury Board and the ministries concerned have been going on for months. The union demands were submitted last fall and the Quebec offer was submitted in December. The collective agreements expired on March 31.
The president of the FTQ, Magali Picard, reports that her members are exasperated and even “insulted” by the government offer, which has remained since December 2022 at 9% over five years, with a lump sum of $1,000, despite the context current inflationary.
Mme Picard speaks of “arrogance” on the part of the Legault government and wonders if it is not acting this way because the public sector mainly includes women. “We have the right to question ourselves. How is it that the same employer, the government, recognizes that he is entitled to 30%? [d’augmentations salariales], that the Sûreté du Québec is entitled to 21%. And, meanwhile, to 420,000 workers under his leadership, who represent 78% women, are they offered 9%? » protests Mme Picard.
“We are really in a dialogue of the deaf where, publicly, we say that we are talking to each other. It’s true that we talk to each other. But, concretely, at the table, we only talk about government solutions, which are to keep people working longer, by modifying the rules of the retirement plan, and by increasing the number of hours per week for certain bodies. of employment,” criticized in turn the president of the APTS, Robert Comeau.
Union members also have solutions to propose to the problems experienced in the networks and they also want to talk about them, adds Mr. Comeau.
The President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, reacted in a brief statement sent Monday morning on X (formerly Twitter). “To negotiate adequately, we must have valid bases: contrary to what the common front claims, the average salary of its members is not $44,000, but $61,000 for full-time workers,” she argued.
