Quebec public service unions, including nurses, held massive common-front rallies June 14 in the province.
Quebec nurses announced July 2nd they are breaking off talks with the provincial government for a new contract.
“The government insists we accept a disguised decrease by imposing a deal negotiated with other unions. We can only conclude the government is removing our right to negotiate,” says President Régine Laurent.
The nurses have been proposing a 3.75% annual increase for each year of a three-year agreement.
The union is part of the Quebec Common Front of public service unions who were all asking for the same increase. The unions are coming to the end of a contract imposed in 2005 by the Charest government which set salaries for six years, with two years of pay freeze, followed by four annual 2-per-cent increases. Quebec nurses are the lowest paid in Canada.
“For months we’ve been repeating to the government that if we maintain the current working conditions that nurses, licensed practical nurses and respiratory therapists live every day, the whole network of public health care in Quebec will crash,” President Laurent said. FIQ (La Fédération
interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec) which represents 58,000 health workers says there is a shortage of 4,000 nurses in Quebec now, and it will worsen with retirement over the coming years.
Having broken off talks, FIQ says it will pursue its campaign of mobilization will continue until the fall.
The mobilization includes:
“Boycott” the employer • Stop all meetings, committees, signing of agreements Operation “I am now working overtime” • Wear a patch (number) to indicate all overtime work Operation “Great disturbance: Board of
Directors of the institu- tion” • Question the members of the Boards of Directors on the management offers and force them to take a position on them Letter to the members of local teams • Send a letter to the local teams giving an update on the situation of negotiations Black Wednesdays • Wear a black T-shirt on Wednesdays Blacklist the dress code • Use your imagination on the other days (jeans, bermuda shorts, camouflage pants, baseball cap, pyjamas on the night shift Hide the ID badge • Wear the armband and the
bracelet |
