Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, May 26, 2021
Quebec
teachers, support staff at public schools, education specialists and
health care workers are holding a series of one to two-day strikes to
back their right to negotiate collective agreements with the Quebec
government that improve their wages, working conditions and the
services they provide to the public. Public sector workers reject with
contempt the government's neo-liberal decree that it has the "right" to
dictate their wages and working conditions and deprive them of
their rights.
The
Quebec government's dictate of a wage increase of five per cent over
three years plus certain lump sums is an insult not only to public
sector workers but to all workers throughout Quebec and Canada. The
dictate tramples on the right of all workers to negotiate the price of
their capacity to work that employers buy and to improve the working
conditions they face every working day. These conditions include the
growing prevalence of precarious work, in particular at the colleges,
which workers are determined to eliminate.
The government dictate
does not raise wages to keep pace with the cost of living or contribute
to pensions. It fails in general to make any dent in the decades of
neo-liberal attacks on the wages and working conditions of working
people.
The dictate refuses to increase investments in social programs and
public services. Failure to invest in social programs and public
services has been cruelly exposed by the pandemic as disastrous for
society. Public sector workers and their collectives have long said
that wages, pensions and working conditions which workers deem
acceptable are key not only to attract and retain workers but to
improve the social programs and public services the people need and
have a right to in a modern cultured society.
Investments in social programs and public services add value to the
economy and improve the social and natural environment. To
arrogantly declare, as the government does, that investments in social programs
and public services, including the wages of those who do the work, are
"costs" that the government cannot bear is neo-liberal nonsense
and disinformation. These investments result in added value for the
economy and society. They are important aspects of nation-building and
to say and act otherwise is to be exposed as anti-people nation-wreckers.
To deprive workers and the people generally of their rights and
needs through government decree reveals that the ruling elite is unfit
to govern! It must not pass and will not pass! All out to support the
public sector workers in their just struggle!
This article was published in
May 28, 2021 - No. 50
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08501.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
