17 December 2019
We’ve been talking about it for some time now, but here we go: negotiations of public and parapublic collective agreements have been underway since October 17 for the S12 (anglophone school boards) and S13 (bus drivers) collective agreements, and October 18, the day we tabled our demands with the Conseil du patronat du Québec, for the S3 (francophone school boards), S8 (Cree School board) and S9 (Kativik School Board) collective agreements.
These demands emerged from the consultations we conducted over the last few months to which you responded in great numbers. The final union demands were adopted by the last Federal Council of Negotiations on October 15. They are grouped under six themes that accurately represent the daily challenges we face, in a context of labour shortages and staff retention problems:
- The attraction and retention of personnel;
- The enhancement and stimulation of jobs;
- Staff mobility;
- Future prospects and promotions;
- The revision of certain working conditions;
- Higher wages in the sector.
Innovative wage demands
As you know, our demands are somewhat different this year. We believe it’s time to innovate and look for different ways to do things. Asking for a specific raise in dollars per hour means that not all job classes will receive the same percentage raise, thus reducing the gap between the different job classes.
Interesting fact: we are the first among all the union centrales to ever ask for a dollar amount, not a percentage. Another example to show that we are a group looking for solutions, not a lobby group.
The CAQ for education
These are the words of Prime Minister François Legault himself, supported by Treasury Board President Christian Dubé: health and education are the priorities of the Caquiste government. It’s only normal that we would expect these words to translate into actions. So, we look forward to a successful conclusion to these negotiations. Because WE are also education!
Pierre Provençal
Vice President of Labour Relations and Professional Affairs