The nurses at the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec have had enough. On Sunday, more than 200 healthcare professionals demonstrated in front of the Sainte-Croix hospital in Drummondville.
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Some left by bus from Shawinigan, Trois-Rivières and Victoriaville to denounce the new measures taken by the employer. On Sunday, the CIUSSS MCQ implemented new mandatory weekend measures and the merger of services. These moves and mergers of services are not the solution according to the union.
The nurses are outraged. They will not be able to change specialization overnight. Nurses specializing in psychiatry, for example, cannot be specialized in the operating room, for example. “I’m going to be a nuisance to my colleagues,” admits a nurse.
Other unions came to support the CIUSSS MCQ nurses. The president of the SPPSAM-CIUSSS-MCQ is indignant at the “lies” that were told by the CIUSSS at the negotiation table. The president of the APTS MCQ, she admits that the CIUSSS had never acted with “so little consideration for its numbers, sorry, employees”.
The national president of the FIQ also made a point of being present to tell the workers of Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec that there are more than 82,000 healthcare professionals who support them throughout Quebec.
On Saturday, the Administrative Labor Tribunal ruled. The threat of mass resignation of nurses is illegal.
“Are we surprised by the decision? The answer is no,” underlines the president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard.
A general meeting will be held between the Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec union and its members on Monday to find other means of pressure that union members can use against the employer’s measures.
The nurses hope that their cry from the heart will be heard and that the demonstration on Sunday will have echoes as far as the Office of the Minister of Health.