Quebec Public Sector to Hold Strikes in November
Workers Determined to Fight Until They Achieve Acceptable Working Conditions and Wages
On Thursday October 26, the Common Front representing 420,000 public sector workers in Quebec announced the holding of a first one-day province-wide strike on November 6. It will include more than 500 walkouts across the province and picket lines at health care facilities, schools and other places. "With its attitude at the (negotiating) tables, with its offer of nine per cent over five years, which has not budged since the beginning, with its dubious media operations, in short, with its contempt, [the Legault government] is forcing us to go on strike," reads the Common Front press release.
The
Common Front includes the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN),
the Quebec Labour Federation (FTQ), the Quebec Labour Congress (CSQ)
and the Alliance of Healthcare and Social Services Professional and
Technical Employees (APTS).
The previous day, on October 25, the Interprofessional Federation of Quebec Health Care (FIQ) announced that it received a mandate to strike from 95 per cent of its 80,000 members, which include nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists. In the same press release the FIQ announced that it will be holding its first strike on November 8 and 9.
"It's a strong mandate to tell the government that the proposals we're receiving at the bargaining table are unacceptable. Our working conditions are already very difficult, but what François Legault wants to do is make them even worse by treating us like interchangeable pawns. He has no respect for our professional judgment or our personal lives. Facility managers better get ready: the strike is coming," said FIQ president Julie Bouchard.
This means that as of October 25, all workers in health, social programs and education in Quebec have voted to exercise their right to strike. The Common Front announced on October 17 that it had received a mandate for strike from their members with an average of 95 per cent in favour of this action. According to the leaders of the Common Front, this level of support has not been seen for 50 years (see press release below).
The 60,000-member Fédération autonome des enseignants (FAE), which is not part of the Common Front, also voted in favour of an unlimited strike.
"Our members have made it clear: the status quo is not an option. Teachers' working conditions are also students' learning conditions. For months, headlines have been reporting on the critical state of the Quebec school system. It's high time the Legault government took the necessary steps to ensure that the start of the 2023 school year is the last to take place under similar circumstances," declares Mélanie Hubert, President of the FAE.
Earlier in October the FIQ launched its campaign "There's a Limit – Heading for a Strike." In addition to opposing the government's measures to increase their workloads and thus undermine the quality of patient care, the FIQ rejects the addition of a retirement eligibility criterion (i.e. age 57) regardless of the number of years worked. "Thus, a care professional who started her career very young would be forced to work two years longer, even if she had already accumulated 35 years of service," says the FIQ.
That's nearly 600,000 public sector workers saying No! to the government's refusal to take their demands as a starting point for bargaining and impose measures that will increase their already unsustainable workload.
Prior to the Common Front announcement of one day strike on November 6, Quebec Treasury Board President Sonia Lebel announced that she will present new offers to public sector workers on Sunday, October 29. She made this announcement on social media, without informing the workers' negotiation committees through official channels. Her public announcement was made on October 25, which is just within the period of the legally required 10-work day notice for the strike scheduled for November 6. At a press conference on October 26, FTQ President Magali Picard pointed out that this very much sounds like a ploy to then say that the workers announced a strike without hearing the new offer. Common Front representatives said they would not comment until they see the offer but warned against government attempts to play games. In her third "new offer" of March 27, Lebel maintained the totally unacceptable nine per cent wage increase over five years but added a 2.5 per cent increase for sectors considered "government priorities."
Furthermore, Premier François Legault is trying to gauge public opinion by talking to individual workers directly. On Wednesday he stopped by to speak to public sector workers demonstrating outside the National Assembly to tell them that "we all want the same thing." He told them that he "doesn't know" what Minister Lebel will propose on Sunday, but that, in his opinion, "we need to give bigger increases to full-time, night, weekend and regional staff." He said that differentiated wage increases "have rarely been seen in Quebec's history," but that the government's financial capacities "oblige it to make choices based on needs."
Common Front representatives did not reply directly to Legault's new attempt to create a division among workers and yet again invoke the government's nebulous "capacity to pay." Experience shows that when it comes to meeting the claims of public sector workers for wages and working conditions, the "capacity to pay" is limited but its "capacity to pay" is apparently unlimited when it comes to pay-the-rich schemes that further dislocate Quebec's national economy for further integration to the U.S. war economy. The Common Front did say in its press release: "In this context, the Common Front takes the liberty of making it abundantly clear: stop negotiating through PR stunts, take an interest in what's happening on the floor, and come back with a serious offer."
Attempts to blame unions and workers for the slowness of negotiations are not acceptable either. The people of Quebec who receive health care and social programs, as well as all the services provided in schools, are fully aware that it is the workers who provide them who are defending a public health care system and system of education that meets the needs of the people. It is the government that must be held to account if it fails to provide the working conditions and wages that they need to do so.
This article was published in
Number 58 - October 26, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10582.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca