Public sector workers ratify collective agreement
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
The four trade union federations of the Front Commun bloc, representing more than 420,000 public sector health, education and social services workers, have officially reached an agreement with the Quebec government, ending months of labour strife.
After dozens of union locals around the province voted in a month-long process, the central agreement was ratified with 74.8 per cent of members voting in favour, union leaders announced on Feb. 23. The agreement allows for a 17.4 per cent salary increase over five years, with additional one per cent annual increases possible in the event inflation reaches a certain level. Among other gains highlighted by the unions, psychologists and certain skilled tradespeople will receive additional bonuses, the most senior employees will get an additional week of paid vacation and older workers will be able to “progressively retire” over seven years rather than the previous five. The agreement is valid until 2028.
The Front Commun is made up of the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ), Conseil syndical national (CSN), Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS). FTQ president Magali Picard, CSQ president Éric Gingras, APTS president Robert Comeau and CSN vice-president François Énault addressed reporters in Quebec City after the results were announced. “This is a historic day – we just finished more than a year of negotiations,” Picard said. “We have a contract, we’re proud of it, but our members still want to send a message.”
Énault noted that the indexation clauses represented “something we haven’t seen since the 1980s” and the salary increase was nearly double the government’s initial offer of nine per cent.
Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel acknowledged the agreement in a post on X. “We’re satisfied with the ground we have covered with the Front Commun,” she wrote. “The agreements we’ve reached are the result of a common desire to negotiate differently and adapt our ways of doing things to the realities of 2024 in order to improve services.”
However, Comeau noted that although the agreement contained “interesting gains,” all parties “still had work to do” to ensure quality public services. “Many of our mem- bers think it would have taken more to solve the problems – [the agreement] doesn’t respond to everyone’s needs,” he said. “Our organizations will keep working to find solutions between now and the next collective agreement. We can’t let our public services reach a breaking point.”
Although the central agreement has been ratified, Gin- gras pointed out that several sectorial agreements, including that involving the CSQ’s health arm, which represents a portion of the province’s nurses, have yet to be finalized. The province’s largest nurses’ union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé (FIQ) is still in separate negotiations with the government and has not yet reached an agreement in principle. FIQ press officer Félix Tremblay told the QCT the union will not comment on the ongoing negotiations for the time being.