June 14, 2018

FIQ President Nancy Bédard, FIQ-Syndicat des professionnelles en soins de la Capitale-Nationale (FIQ-SPSCN) President Patricia Lajoie, and over 500 union reps from across the province, gathered to protest in front of the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale’s management offices. They were there to support healthcare professionals and protest the attitude of the CIUSSS’s management in negotiations to renew the local collective agreement.

“We should be in the middle of intensive negotiations but the employer party only wants to negotiate two days a week. The CIUSSS management has made unacceptable requests, which would downgrade our working conditions,” said FIQ-SPSCN President Patricia Lajoie.

Some of the CIUSSS’s requests include:

• Being able to decide when healthcare professionals may take their vacation;
• While refusing to open full-time positions, being able to oblige employees to be available at all times;
• Being able to move staff from Portneuf to Charlevoix without taking into account their areas of expertise;
• Being able to deny respiratory therapists positions, which means they seek employment at other institutions.

“Negotiations started over a year ago and, frankly, the CIUSSS management has an arrogant and rude attitude. And yet, the two tentative agreements concluded in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Abitibi-Témiscamingue show that it is possible to negotiate in good faith and come to a satisfactory agreement. By behaving this way, CEO Michel DeLamarre is taking sides with dimwitted managers,” said FIQ President Nancy Bédard.

“We have simple requests to make for smooth negotiations. We are asking the CIUSSS management to make a real effort to negotiate. We are also asking them to speed up the negotiation process, to give real mandates and decision-making power to the people they chose to negotiate with us and, lastly, to show their employees some respect,” concluded Patricia Lajoie.