ICQ tables new offer as library strike drags on
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Three months after employees in the Ville de Québec public library system began an unlimited general strike, the Institut canadien de Québec (ICQ), the city-funded nonprofit which oversees the library system, tabled a new proposed agreement on May 31.
In a statement, ICQ spokes- person Mélisa Imedjouben called the proposal “a final and global offer.”
“We hope the new offer will allow our team to go back to work and give citizens back full access to our libraries,” she said.
However, Roxane Larouche, spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Work- ers of Canada (UFCW, better known in Quebec by its French acronym TUAC), of which the library union is a member, said “several unanswered questions remained” in the proposed agreement. “We can- not present this offer to our members as long as we don’t have answers and the relevant documentation,” she told the QCT May 31. “We agreed to meet next week in order to have all the answers we need.” If the union executive agrees to put the proposal to a vote and members approve it, it could be several weeks before the strike ends, Larouche said.
Larouche could not share details of the proposal before members had seen it. Strikers’ main demands include more flexible scheduling, higher pay for entry-level staff and pay equivalent to Ville de Québec staff doing similar jobs.
The offer tabled last week is the fourth proposal aimed at ending the strike. In mid- April, the Ville de Québec, which finances the ICQ, rejected one proposal; another was rejected by union members in a narrow (52 per cent to 48 per cent) vote in April. Transition Québec leader Jackie Smith is organizing a citizens’ march in support of the strikers on June 8, starting at 1 p.m. at the Saint- Charles Library in Limoilou and marching to the Gabrielle- Roy Library in Saint-Roch. She said she had received more than 2,000 messages from constituents hoping for a swift end to the strike.
“A lot of people depend on libraries – families, retirees, homeless people, anyone who needs to get out of the house and go somewhere without having to spend money or be- ing rushed along,” said Smith, the mother of two young children. “It’s a place where neighbours can meet, where parents can take their kids for storytime … I’m so tired of reading the same books to my kids over and over again!” She also pointed out that with summer on the horizon, many people rely on libraries for air conditioning and summer reading programs for school- age children. “These kids have experienced the pandemic, the teachers’ strike and now they may lose their summer reading programs,” she said.
She accused the city of pinning the blame for the strike on the ICQ and wear- ing down striking employees with a long dispute. “It’s time for citizens to speak with one voice and say this is unacceptable,” she said. “Our librarians are important – pay them well, end this impasse and reopen the libraries, but not at any price.”
Three public libraries – the Gabrielle-Roy Library, the Monique-Corriveau Library in Sainte-Foy and the Étienne- Parent Library in Beauport – are open with reduced hours during the strike, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 12 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. The other 23 libraries in the city are closed for the duration of the strike.