(Quebec) Major unions reject Treasury Board President Sonia Lebel’s “blunder.” They associate these debates affecting the health and education sectors with the Legault government’s desire to control the “bulldozer” and impose its will.
“Mr. I have good news.me Lebel. She doesn’t need fresh seed. She doesn’t need a hitch. The pit has already been dug, and all that remains is to put water in it,” says Magali Picard, president of the Quebec Federation of Workers (FTQ), in an interview. Pres.
He responded to M’s publicationme Lebel emphasized that holding the discussion forums parallel to the negotiating tables would ease the “heavy” process of renewing government employees’ collective agreements.1.
According to the minister, the mechanism codified by the law is equivalent to him “digging a lake with a spoon” and his discussion forums will allow him to buy “a seed to do the same thing”. As an example, he cited a solution proposed by the Legault government to provide 15,000 “classroom aides” to teachers, who could be daycare educators. Instead of going back and forth between different negotiation tables, she prefers to negotiate in one forum.
Also has FTQ solutions
But the head of FTQ Mme LeBel and the government accused union leaders of “covering up” and drowning in “misinformation.” He cites as examples two solutions put forward by his union that did not require a forum, but a willingness to negotiate quickly.
Mme Pickard is in favor of a salary increase for psychologists, which could be done outside of negotiations. Pay Equity ActAnd he proposes creating new “integrated positions” that would allow special education technicians with “difficult” schedules to become classroom assistants full-time.
“We also have solutions,” he says. This opens the door to differentiated salaries, premiums for specific job categories, or changing salary levels for certain job categories. This should be negotiated at the division table, he underlines.
Hands on backhoe controls
President of the Alliance of Professional and Technical Workers in Health and Social Services (APTS), Robert Comeau, FTQ, member of the General Front with the Centrale des Unions du Québec (CSQ) and the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), also scratches Mme Lebel.
In Backlog, only one person drives and is in control. [Sonia LeBel] Talk about their priorities […] While ignoring the proposals of our members.
Robert Comeau, president of APTS
Her organization protects psychologists, a profession targeted by Quebec for higher pay than other public sector workers. Why don’t they come to these forums to discuss this issue?
“Workforce retention and shortage issues affect all of our members. But they want to address psychologists. They’re not talking about youth centers. [dont les employés sont représentés par l’APTS], where the problems are glaring. “The money they propose to put into the forums is no longer available to others, it’s just for their priorities, we have nothing to do with it,” he explains.
Not a “backhoe”, but a bulldozer
Mme LeBel wants to discuss its plans at these forums, which will cost 700 million over five years, the amount awarded in the global offer to unions last December.
Melanie Hubert, president of the Federation of Autonomous Education (FAE), believes it is “a tip for a dilemma”.me LeBel is a mistake. “It looks like a bulldozer, better to follow the big heavy machinery or get out of the way,” she laments.
And Caroline Chenneville, president of CSN, talks about possible illegal “trafficking.” “I don’t think it respects the rules and laws. He is appealing to the good faith of the government but has not ruled out turning to his lawyers if the situation continues.
Not all unions are comfortable negotiating different wages. Eric Gingras, head of the Centrale des Unions du Québec, opposes it and argues that salary increases for teachers and nurses do not solve shortage problems. But “everything is negotiated,” argues Carolyn Senneville, as long as it’s done at the negotiating tables.
In a message posted on Facebook on Saturday, Prime Minister François Legault started the ball rolling by accusing the unions of showing “closure” by boycotting the three forums.2.
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- March, 31
- 600,000 civil servants’ collective agreements expire date.
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