Nurses at CIUSSS de la Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec are adequately qualified. On Sunday, more than 200 health professionals demonstrated in front of Saint-Croix Hospital in Drummondville.
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Some took off by bus from Shawinigan, Trois-Rivières and Victoriaville to denounce the employer’s new measures. On Sunday, the CIUSSS MCQ implemented new mandatory weekend activities and linkage of services. These moves and mergers of services are not a settlement according to the union.
Nurses are dissatisfied. They cannot change expertise overnight. Nurses who specialize in psychiatry, for example, may not specialize in the operating room. “I’m going to be a nuisance to my colleagues,” admits one nurse.
Other unions came out in support of CIUSSS MCQ nurses. Chairman of SPPSAM-CIUSSS-MCQ was angered by the “lies” told by CIUSSS at the negotiating table. As chairman of APTS MCQ, he admits that CIUSSS has never “underestimated its numbers, sorry staff”.
FIQ’s national president also noted the presence of more than 82,000 health care professionals across Quebec to tell workers in Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec that they are there to support them.
On Saturday, the Administrative Labor Tribunal ruled. The threat of mass resignations by nurses is illegal.
“Are we surprised by this result? The answer is no,” underlines FIQ’s President Julie Bouchard.
A public meeting between the Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec union and its members on Monday will explore other pressure union members can use against the employer’s actions.
The nurses hope that their cry from the heart will be heard and Sunday’s protest will reverberate all the way to the health minister’s office.
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