Interview, Nathalie Savard, President, Union of Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and Respiratory Therapists of Northeastern Quebec (SIISNEQ)Workers' Forum: Where is SIISNEQ at in the process of renewing its members' collective agreements? Nathalie Savard: SIISNEQ represents 1,200 nurses, licensed practical nurses and respiratory therapists on Quebec's North Shore and in Northern Quebec. Our members' collective agreements expire on March 31. For us, the upcoming negotiations bring to mind the importance of finding solutions so as improve health care. Through the Quebec Health Federation, of which we are a part, we have submitted our offers to the employers. At the sectoral level, that is to say at the level of working conditions, it is clear that compulsory overtime and the use of private employment agencies to provide workers in the sector must be ended, and that the employer must respect the terms of employment of our members. When you are a nurse, licensed practical nurse or respiratory therapist, you have a 35, 36 or 37.5 hours per week position. We expect to provide this service and provide it in a safe and healthy work environment without being constantly burdened with additional tasks. However, we often see our members not taking their breaks, shortening their meal breaks, and a lot of pressure is put on them to work overtime at the end of their shift. It is important that the negotiations contribute to resolving these difficulties, so that people are able to do their work well. Working conditions must be those that respect their work because they care for human beings who are suffering, and often their families as well. We must regain this human dimension that we have lost over the years, through all the budget cuts, all the job cuts in the health care sector. We have solutions to propose to the employers, creating full-time positions, taking the money that is spent on private employment agencies and reinvesting it in the health network, measures necessary to retain our young people, 10 per cent of whom leave the profession in their first five years at work, supporting them by creating mentoring positions. There are great things that can be done but there must be a will to do them. We are facing a government that made us a really ridiculous offer before Christmas in terms of wages, seven per cent over five years, when what is necessary is to improve the public profile of public services. WF: What has emerged from the employer sectoral offers that have been presented to you? NS: When the government tabled its sectoral proposals to our federation, representatives of the management committee told us that unions speak badly of the profession, and that this makes it difficult to attract people to the profession. It is not a serious argument. Young people are quite capable of forming their own opinions when they come to do internships in the health institutions. We feel that this is a government that wants to come in and take an axe to certain working conditions, such as sick leave and statutory holidays. The employer is saying that it cannot provide sick leave because there are not enough people working, so they are looking to reduce sick leave. They seem to want to attack our vacation time too. We have very opposite positions. We have to find a way to attract young people to the profession. Young people are very interested in their quality of life. We cannot ask people to submit to conditions of modern-day slavery, it will not work. This is not how we will reduce sickness and absenteeism in the network. The employer speaks to us about mobility and flexibility while we are looking for team stability. The treatments are complex and people develop specialties. They have to develop good quality skills and good follow-up with patients. It is even more difficult to recruit people in remote areas. We are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit on the North Shore and in Northern Quebec. We have our specialties in our regions, in oncology, hematology, our mother-child centres, etc. and it is increasingly difficult to maintain these services due to a lack of nurses, licensed practical nurses and respiratory therapists. If we are not able to promote the profession, will we still be able to provide the services? Is the government heading towards shifting services to the private sector? This is the real question. We made a choice as a society to create a public health service accessible to all. The situation we are in must change now. WF: Do you want to say something in conclusion? NS: The Coalition Avenir Québec government has promised not to act the same as the Liberals did in terms of health care. They say that the reign of Barrette is over. [Gaetan Barrette was the Health Minister under the previous Liberal government who stepped up the anti-social restructuring of health care in Quebec -- WF]. And yet the negotiations began with the same tone. We are not against devoting funds to improving the conditions of care givers, but in the health sector we must take care of everyone. We have to take care of everything, not just one job category, we have to solve the problem of the network as a whole, in order to be able to provide services. Solutions have to be found and negotiations have to take place, or else it will be a mobilization that takes place. For us this is a priority in 2020. We must mobilize our troops and make Premier Legault and the Minister of Health understand that we are here to keep a quality public network and that for us health care in the remote regions is very important. It is a priority to provide quality services to the people who live in these regions, in this large territory, so that they do not need to go to Quebec City and Montreal for treatment. I hope that the year 2020 will a good one for our members, that we settle things. I salute them, they have their profession at heart and I wish them the best. The negotiations must ensure that the negotiating parties can come to an agreement and resolve the difficulties that these people have been experiencing for too long.
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