After a third series of strike days and a few days before the holidays, your Negotiating Committee felt it was necessary to hold a special federal council to update your union representatives on how negotiations have been going.

After the two first series of strike days, we saw the government start to open up to discuss our demands. We saw it as a positive sign and were hoping to reach an agreement if the work continued on like that.

However, a few days later we realized that the government’s intentions had changed. Progress is slow in discussions. After over 75 negotiation meetings and more than a year at the bargaining table, there are still very significant differences between us and the employer. Regarding fundamental issues like salary, overtime, ratios and compensation for inconvenient shifts, we are still light years apart.

On top of that, there are also the government’s demands:

• Flexibility and mobility: the government wants to be able to move healthcare professionals between units, regardless of their expertise and merge units to make mega centres of activities. This approach is not compatible with our vision of team stability.
• Mandatory overtime at the regular rate: the government wants to stop recognizing overtime after a regular work day. That’s a major downgrade.

These negotiations are going to take a long time and no real progress is possible without a certain number of compromises on both sides.

What’s coming next

All signs indicate that the government has chosen to wage a long war with unions to wear them down, hoping our mobilization will fizzle out. Given the context and faced with the impasse in discussions, we asked for a conciliator to intervene. One thing is certain, we must be patient and determined if we want to obtain our gains.

The Negotiating Committee has given the employer its availability to pursue discussions over the holidays but has not yet received any confirmations. Your Negotiating Committee will update your representatives in January. It will be an opportunity to evaluate the impacts of conciliation on the negotiations.

Until then, we encourage you to follow us on our various digital platforms to stay updated on negotiations and hear about our next actions. We hope that you will be able to enjoy some of the holidays to rest and spend time with loved ones despite the ongoing difficult situation in the health network.

Our mobilization continues and it is more key than ever!

Your representatives in action