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Open in full screen mode Sonia LeBel is president of the Treasury Board of the government of Quebec. (Archive photo) Feature being tested
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While several strikes are planned this week, the Union Common Front, which has been negotiating for several months with the Quebec government with the aim of renewing the collective agreements of public sector employees, has requested the appointment of a conciliator to bring the parties closer together. , according to our sources.
Interviewed on the subject on the Montreal show Tout un matin, on ICI Première, the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, declared that she was not resistant to the idea and that she would give her answer “shortly”.
It must be said that it is one minute to midnight for state employees and the Legault government, while three strikes must be triggered this week in Quebec.
The first walkout, which will take place from Tuesday to Friday, from November 21 to 23, will be that of the Common Front, which brings together the CSN, the APTS, the CSQ and the FTQ and which together represents 420,000 government employees.
This three-day strike will affect health and social service establishments, as well as schools and CEGEPs.
Thursday, the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ), which includes 80,000 nurses and healthcare professionals, will join the movement by walking out on November 23 and 24.
As for teachers, 66,000 members of the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE) will launch an indefinite general strike starting Thursday (November 23).
Meanwhile, deadlock persists at the negotiating table, despite the addition of three days of talks between the government and unions this week.
Questioned this morning on ICI RDI, the president of the CSN, Caroline Senneville, affirmed that the union members are very determined to improve their working conditions and that a settlement is always possible. The holidays are here, but there is a lot of work to do.
I've been on strikes, but I've never felt what I felt on the picket line on November 6th. Our votes came out at 95%, emphasized Ms. Senneville.
The first decision we make when we go on strike is that we deprive ourselves of salary, she recalled.
This strike vote is a cry for help. It's our members who tell us: "We just can't take it anymore. Something has to happen."
A quote from Caroline Senneville, president of the CSN
On the other side of the negotiating table, the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel denounces the rigidity of the unions who have categorically refused for months, according to her, to amend their demands to find common ground.
The reaction of the unions is to reject the fourth offer outright. A negotiation is not all or nothing. We need to find solutions. This is what I tell them when I ask them for a counter-offer. What that means is that it takes movement on the issues that are essential to reach a settlement, insisted the minister on the microphone of the program Tout une matin on the ondes d'ICI Première.
Calling on unions to take into account the situation prevailing in Quebec, Ms. LeBel declared that it is impossible for her, for example, to immediately reduce the ratios of students in classes, due to a lack of new teachers.
I don't have any teachers to provide, she repeated. We need to find solutions.
- Stéphane Bordeleau (View profile)Stéphane BordeleauFollow