Quebec Government's Devious Negotiations amid Pandemic
The collective agreement of 500,000 Quebec public sector workers ended on March 31. In an effort that some editorialists -- who are usually soft on the Legault government -- called "indecent," the latter imposed a negotiation blitz amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to try to impose the status quo on this sector for the next three years. A number of union leaders have raised that this is not the time to be negotiating since everyone is concentrating on solving the problems on the front lines in terms of protecting the workers as well as the population in the fight against the pandemic. In fact, as one union leader pointed out, this obstinacy on the part of the Quebec government to want to negotiate at all costs interfered with the discussions which have been taking place precisely on these life and death matters. In so doing, the government itself was trying to impose conditions on workers which were not in accordance with their own public health guidelines. As Andrée Poirier, president of L'Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS) very aptly put it: "Ironically, intensive discussions began today, in the context of the renewal of our collective agreements, precisely to lay down measures to ensure the protection of technicians and professionals in the health and social services system. These measures must be in accordance with the guidelines put forward by Public Health. They must not depend on negotiations in which the employer will attempt by all means to minimize government costs."
In certain cases, the union has succeeded in obtaining basic protection as is the case of the workers in the Buanderie centrale de Montréal where the laundry workers have access to measures and equipment to protect themselves. Unions have also been demanding bonuses of recognition -- some are called "guardian angel bonuses" in reference to the term the Legault government uses when speaking of health workers -- reminding the government that these "angels" are made of flesh and blood and need concrete protection in order to protect themselves and their patients. They also raise that frontline workers are not only doctors and nurses, but all those working in related sectors such as paramedics -- who are actually on the very front lines -- laundry and kitchen workers, etc. A large number of workplaces in the health sector are private and are not unionized, and the situation is often more hectic and worrisome because workers are neither properly informed nor do they have an organization they can turn to so they can make their needs known in a collective manner. This makes the Legault government's underhanded manoeuvre even more despicable. As one nurse put it, it is an "offense to our profession." It is also a profoundly anti-social and outdated move which is motivated by an old, vile resentment for the very organizations which have expressed and shown their full cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and speak on behalf of those very workers whose contribution and selflessness the government claims to recognize.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Since the onset of
the pandemic, unions have been putting forth
demands which come from their members on the front
lines. Among these demands, there is first and
foremost the required personal protective
equipment in various workplaces, but also,
protection of staff in long-term health
facilities, pay for workers who are in isolation,
contradictory or ever-changing guidelines in the
workplace, loss of holidays as is the case with
the nursing staff. In certain cases, health
workers who were sent home for a 14-day quarantine
are called back before the two weeks are up and
forced to work with patients who themselves are
particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.