Quebec Public Sector Workers Hold Series of National Strikes
Striking Workers Are One With the Needs of Quebec People for Public Services
November 23, 2023
Across
Quebec, teachers, education workers and staff in educational
institutions, from daycare to CEGEP, and all those working in health
care and social services have been taking actions on a national scale
to demand higher wages and suitable working conditions. Placards
underscored the consciousness of the workers and the many who came out
to support them of the immense contribution they make to society. Many
exposed the self-serving rhetoric of the government. Many workers
pointed to the fact that the government spends millions and
billions of dollars to bring American sports teams to Quebec and to pay
mining companies to extract Quebec's minerals for the U.S. battery
industry, while every dollar invested to meet the demands of public
sector workers is deemed an expense which exhausts the treasury.
The
Quebec-wide strikes which took place November 21-24 are an
expression of
the collective awareness of the people of Quebec that building a
public
health care and education system depends on the expertise and
demands
of those who deliver these public services every day. On November
23, all public schools and CEGEPs were closed and
health care workers, while respecting the Essential Services Maintenance Act, joined them as
well. There are now more than 600,000 public sector workers on
strike. This week, the members of the Interprofessional Health
Federation of Quebec
(FIQ) joined the 420,000
workers in health, education and social services organized in a
Common
Front, who have been picketing at their workplaces and holding
rallies since the beginning of November. It has become a national
endeavour to defend
public services and support the demands of the workers who provide
them.
On
November 20, Quebec Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel, who is also
the Minister responsible for Government Administration, confirmed once
again on LCN's Le Bilan
program that the government's most important objective in these
negotiations is to get the unions to agree to flexibility in the
organization of the work. In other words, the government wants a free
hand to dictate the tasks and working conditions of teachers and their
colleagues in educational institutions, as well as in health care and
social programs. Her interview revealed once again the government's
profound contempt for union organizations and the workers themselves,
all of whom it considers obstacles to problem-solving.
For
example, according to the government, the shortage of teachers and
nurses is not due to the cutbacks, funding of private institutions
and the rotten working conditions, but because the unions won't give up
the workers' rights on how tasks are assigned. The government wants to
get rid of all constraints that prevent it from doing what it wants with
the human and financial resources of the public sector, with no regard
for the human factor. Workers are also aware that the government's
persistence in centralizing power in the hands of ministers is already
enshrined in the anti-social Bill 15 concerning the health care system
and in Bill 23 concerning education.
Workers in
health care,
education and the social sector are considered disposable commodities
to be moved around at the whim of private interests that the government has
put in charge of these spheres. It is well known that it is precisely
the numerous decrees, cuts and diversion of money to the private sector
that have created the untenable conditions the people experience today.
The refusal of public sector workers to submit to the organization of
work that increasingly serves private interests is definitely what
protects the conception of a health care and education system which
serves the people. Their starting point is to meet the many needs of
the entire population. That's also why the vast majority of the
population support the workers who care for them, despite the
government's attempts to divide them, and all the juggling that
families have to do when schools, daycare and health care facilities close.
The
teachers' strike, which began on November 23, affects almost 40 per
cent of Quebec schools. Mélanie Hubert, President of the
Autonomous Teachers Federation (FAE), noted that the last unlimited
general strike by teachers was in 1983. "[B]ut what's different from
what happened 40 years ago is that this time, teachers are fighting for
the survival of public services [...] because they believe that
services to students have deteriorated to the point where there are no
other solutions to bring about change," she pointed out.
The
Quebec government has a responsibility to provide working conditions
that those who provide public services to the population consider
adequate.
Further Strike Days Announced
On November 28, the Common Front announced another series of strike days from December 8 to 14. The following day, the FIQ informed the public that its members would be exercising their right to strike from December 11 to 14.
This article was published in
Number 60 - December 3, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10601.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca