2023-12-29 21:32:38
Still without an agreement, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) believes that it and the government are still “too far apart” to hope for the end of their negotiations “in the coming days”.
Updated Dec 29 2023
The union, which represents some 85,000 nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, called on a conciliator on December 19 in the hope of resolving the impasse in its negotiations.
“In order to promote the continuation of a constructive and productive dialogue, the conciliator recommends that the parties limit comments in the public arena as much as possible until January 15,” indicated the FIQ at the end of the day Friday, adding that it had accepted the conciliator’s proposal.
“Thus, all energies will be put into the negotiations which will continue intensively and [la trêve médiatique permettra] to prevent them from being disrupted by inappropriate declarations,” she adds.
The union also announces that it does not intend to hold any additional strike days between now and January 15.
In the past, the FIQ has already expressed its disagreement with Quebec’s demands to include greater “flexibility” in the collective agreements of health workers. According to the union, this is a disguised way of moving nurses between care units, health establishments, according to the needs of employers.
New proposition
In mid-December, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, affirmed that at least 500 non-urgent surgeries are postponed per day of the FIQ strike which has held at least eight so far.
On Thursday, the FIQ indicated that it had submitted a “new proposal to the employer party” and was awaiting a response. This is the only federation not to have concluded an agreement after Quebec following a major breakthrough at the negotiating tables in recent days.
This avalanche of agreements also resulted in a compromise on Thursday at the so-called “central” table, where the salary parameters of the next collective agreements for public sector employees were negotiated.
However, like the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), the FIQ was not represented by the Common Front at the so-called “central” table and instead negotiated independently with the government the salary and working conditions of its members.
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