2024-04-15 02:14:42
Nurses represented by the Interprofessional Health Federation (FIQ) rejected the agreement in principle reached between their union and the Quebec government for the renewal of their collective agreements.
The FIQ organized a referendum vote over three days, which ended at 11:59 p.m. Friday, after holding several general meetings of its members to inform them of the content of the agreement in principle.
This was rejected by 61% of union members who voted and the participation rate was high with 77% of members who voted, according to what the largest nurses union in Quebec indicated on its Facebook page. .
Nearly 66,000 healthcare professionals out of a possible 80,000 exercised their right to vote. For the president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard, “the message cannot be clearer” that the agreement in principle is unsatisfactory for the members.
“We roll up our sleeves, we continue this battle until there is something for them (the professionals) that will make a difference,” said Ms. Bouchard, during a press scrum on Saturday morning, to Montreal.
She indicated that after taking note of the members’ decision during the night, “the rallying took place immediately”.
Ms. Bouchard declared that the FIQ will consult the members to determine the issues that led the agreement to be rejected.
“It is on these points that we will have to work on moving forward, because we cannot completely brush aside an agreement in principle and think that we are returning to negotiations with 60 new requests, that’s not how it works and they know it very well,” explained Ms. Bouchard.
The FIQ represents the vast majority of nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists in Quebec. It recommended that its members vote in favor of this agreement in principle, concluded after 15 months of negotiations and days of strike.
Several criticisms were made on social networks by union members, particularly on the issue of nurses traveling and compulsory overtime.
The president of the FIQ recalled during the press scrum that members have decried this request for “mobility” from the government since the start of negotiations.
“If after consultation, after all the steps that we will have to take in the coming days, coming weeks, we realize that it is really mobility, flexibility, flexibility […] which means that for healthcare professionals in Quebec, there cannot be an agreement in principle, the mobilization will be on this subject. »
Even if the FIQ is not yet at the stage of considering new means of pressure at the moment, the union does not exclude that other days of strike could take place, like those which have already taken place last November and December.
“We already had a strike mandate in our pocket which could lead to an unlimited general strike. If the 80,000 healthcare professionals tell us: we are ready to go that far, that will be it, we will not deprive ourselves of it,” maintained Ms. Bouchard.
Political reactions
The president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, reacted on the social network X and said she took “note of the rejection of the agreement in principle by the members of the FIQ”.
“We are going to meet with the union to understand what is wrong. However, the context and our objectives will remain the same, particularly in terms of flexibility,” indicated Ms. LeBel in her publication.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, also turned to the X platform to react.
“Discussions will continue. It remains that we must make the necessary changes to improve our health network and become an employer of choice,” he said.
During the national council of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Saturday in Drummondville, the party’s health spokesperson, Joël Arsenau, maintained that it is the government which should apply flexibility in its negotiations with nurses
“Negotiations have been dragging on for 15 months already, we know that we are not making progress in the health system, so the government is putting water in its wine so that we can find working conditions that allow nurses to continue doing their job,” he said.
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