Quebec Government Tables Offers to Public Sector Workers

Workers' Reject Attempt to Impose Wages and Working Conditions

Quebec public sector workers deliver their demands to the National Assembly, October 28, 2022.

On December 15, Sonia LeBel, Minister Responsible for Government Administration and Chair of the Treasury Board, tabled the Quebec government's offers to the 600,000 public and parapublic sector workers, whose collective agreements expire on March 31, 2023. She announced the government's wage offer and presented its approach to what she referred to as broadening the debate in terms of "on the ground results in work organization." The unions denounced the wage proposal, which they called insulting, and the approach to the organization of work as unacceptable measures the government is trying to impose in lieu of negotiating wages and working conditions in "good faith bargaining."


Government's Opposition to Collective Bargaining

Half of the press conference on the government's offers was devoted to the announcement of public forums amongst "partners," such as the government, unions, health care employers' associations, professional associations and perhaps others. Three public forums are planned: the Classroom Team, the Care Team and the Mental Health Team.

During the previous round of negotiations, public sector workers opposed such forums as a means of avoiding collective bargaining by sitting at the tables where workers and their unions bring the demands and solutions they want implemented. According to the government, the forums would be held concurrently with and throughout the negotiations. Furthermore, the government is to allocate money for non-negotiated measures dependent on what it declares are its priorities.

"We need to better identify what will facilitate the implementation of the foundational changes in the sector that our government has identified as priorities," said the Treasury Board Chair during the press conference.

She outlined the aim of the forums to ensure "foundational changes" by saying:

"On the union side, the management side as well as for the other players involved, we must all get out of our comfort zone. We have to go beyond traditional processes, respective gains and the usual ways of doing things. We are aware that this important shift may cause discomfort. But we want everyone to take this opportunity to do much better for our people on the ground."

The government's record shows that it does not in fact care about "the people on the ground." The recurring key words in the press conference were "flexibility," "decompartmentalization," and "agility " -- all buzzwords which accompany the defunding and privatization of services. Workers are already fully aware of what they mean -- deteriorating working conditions and care within the system, suppression of the workers' participation in solving the problems, burnout, etc.

The Legault government is moving full speed ahead with the neo-liberal anti-social offensive which decimates social programs and destroys public services. The more narrow private interests usurp the political authority, the more they dictate that the workers must subordinate themselves to whatever wages and working conditions they wish to impose. What used to be called collective bargaining conducted in good faith no longer exists. This leaves the workers with the only option of waging the fight in defence of their rights in the court of public opinion.

Public sector workers have rejected what the government calls its "offers" and are stepping up their mass struggle for their rights which is also the fight for the services the people require.


Insulting Wage Offer

The government wants the workers to sign five-year collective agreements with a total wage offer of nine per cent: three per cent in the first year and 1.5 per cent over the next four, or 1.8 per cent on average per year. In addition, there would be a one-time lump sum payment of $1,000 upon the signing of the agreement, which is not counted as part of wages and therefore not part of the calculation for pension and vacation income. The government claims it is adding another 2.5 per cent that it is falsely including in the wage offer, as the amount is dependent on what the government calls achieving "its priorities." The wage offer does not include any cost of living allowance. With an inflation rate of 6.8 per cent for 2022 and a projected rate of about five per cent for Quebec in 2023, the offer constitutes a major cut in real wages for public sector workers. According to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, public sector workers earn on average nine per cent less than private sector workers doing similar work. The offer runs directly counter to the demand of workers and the public to attract and retain workers in public services. Any additional money is made conditional upon public sector employees submitting to government dictate on the direction of public services. This negates the immense value that public sector workers create for society and is an insult to them as they keep services going against all odds, providing care, saving lives and teaching the youth at the risk of their own health, while successive neo-liberal governments continue to devastate these services.

During the press conference when the offers were announced, the Treasury Board Chair gave the usual line that the wage offer must take into account the Quebec government's capacity to pay. When it comes to paying the rich for the squandering of public funds, the government has an unlimited capacity to pay, however it considers its own workers as a cost to be reduced, not as creators of the social wealth, the basis for building Quebec, upon which they have a claim as a matter of right.

Her cynicism is such that she says that she shares the workers' view, that in and of themselves the issue of wages cannot solve all the problems in public services.

(Quotations translated from the original French by TML.)


This article was published in
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Volume 52 Number 63 - December 21, 2022

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520631.HTM


    

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