2023-12-12 16:41:22
Since the end of November, the main unions in Quebec have been waging the most significant social conflict in the public sector in nearly fifty years. More than 566,000 employees are affected, out of a working population of 4.4 million people in the French-speaking province of Canada. Some are on an indefinite general strike, others on a rotating strike. This conflict marks the failure, for the moment, of the negotiation on the new collective agreement between the provincial government and the unions.
Unions in a position of strength
The unions, most of which have united under the banner of the “Common Front”, feel in a position of strength. While the public sector faces a shortage of staff in schools and hospitals, the provincial government wants to curb the exodus of civil servants to the private sector – the number of nurses working there has, for example, jumped by 20 % in one year, in 2021. The unions also know that public opinion is on their side. The timing is therefore ideal for hoping to negotiate salary and social advances in order to stop the bleeding and hope to replenish their troops.
After weeks of scrapping, the center-right provincial government, led by François Legault, has given up little ballast, deploring the lack of flexibility of the unions. He wants to offer more powers to public sector leaders, both over the amount of bonuses and over the use of employees’ time. “ It is not normal that our network is managed by unions rather than by managers “, he argued on December 7.
A chasm between the two parties
The two parts remain separated by a chasm. The Common Front is demanding an increase in employee compensation of 23% over three years, while the latest offer from the provincial government is close to 13% over five years. Beyond salary aspects, work organization occupies a large place at the negotiating table. One of the unions on strike, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec, is demanding, for example, the end of “mandatory overtime” in hospitals, set up to compensate for the lack of staff.
Teachers want to see their classes change. Audray, an arts teacher at a college south of Montreal, insists: “Salary is secondary in our demands. » If she is striking, it is above all so that the Ministry of Education adds classes. “I find myself with almost half of my students who are EHDAA (students with disabilities or adjustment or learning difficulties). How do I teach this audience and my students who don’t have difficulties at the same time? »
Mélanie, her colleague in mathematics, no longer recognizes the profession she took up twenty-three years ago. “They closed adapted classes in the 2010s, wanting to integrate more students into traditional classes, but the teachers are not trained for that! »
Nearly a million students deprived of school
Nearly a million students are out of school right now, forcing parents to juggle babysitters. The strike makes “harm to our children”, said the Prime Minister. Thousands of hospital appointments are postponed. Some unions have strike funds, others do not, which means that striking teachers, short of resources, have to turn to food banks for food.
The Legault government will have to skillfully maneuver its way out of the crisis, because the political sequence at the end of the year is delicate. He has just passed, “under gag order” (an accelerated way of moving to adoption without discussing all the articles with the assembly, Editor’s note), a bill which will profoundly transform the health network , which was denounced by the majority of the sector.
During his assessment at the end of the parliamentary session, Friday December 8, François Legault said he was aware that the year was rich in “controversies”. It could end on an encouraging note: an unblocking of the negotiations did not seem impossible Monday evening in Quebec.
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