Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

English and French public schools and CEGEPs around the region will be closed from Dec. 8-14 unless 11th-hour agreements are reached to end two separate strikes.

Teachers in Central Québec School Board (CQSB) schools are represented by the Central Québec Teachers’ Association (CQTA), part of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), itself a member of the teachers’ wing of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ). CEGEP teachers and staff in the Quebec City region are represented by the educational wings of the CSQ and the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN). Both the CSQ and CSN are members of the Front Commun negotiating bloc, along with the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec (FTQ) and the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS). The Front Commun, which represents a total of more than 420,000 workers, has declared a weeklong strike next week.

Performing arts teacher Tess LeBlanc is a CQTA union representative at Quebec High School. “What this [strike] means is that there’s no school. The school will be locked,” she said.

LeBlanc said she was aware the closure was an inconvenience for parents. “A lot of [CQTA] members are parents, and they’re having to make daycare arrangements and call grandparents to babysit. We know it’s a juggle. It’s worth it, but that doesn’t take away the difficulties.”

She said teachers’ demands included not only better pay, but smaller class sizes, especially for the youngest students, more attention paid to class composition (“We can’t have 32 kids in a classroom without taking into consideration their diverse needs”) and more support for early- career teachers. According to QPAT, 50 per cent of newly certified teachers leave the profession after five years.

Yves De Repentigny is vice president responsible for CEGEPs at the Fédération des enseignants et enseignantes du Québec (FNEEQ), affiliated with the CSN. Teachers’ unions at CEGEP Champlain- St. Lawrence and several local French CEGEPs are FNEEQ affiliates; others are affiliated with the CSQ.

He said the proposed salary increase of 10.3 per cent over five years offered to public French CEGEPs are FNEEQ affiliates; others are affiliated with the CSQ.

He said the proposed salary increase of 10.3 per cent over five years offered to public sector workers is “clearly in- sufficient” but that CEGEP teachers are also concerned about increased workload, large class sizes and job insecurity for early- and mid-career teachers, which he referred to as “permanent precarity.”

The impact of the strikes on the school calendar is yet to be determined. St. Lawrence spokesperson Emma Lawrence said the college will be closed on strike days, except for evening non-credit courses and extracurriculars. Exams that were meant to take place during strike days are being rescheduled, and the calendar will be extended until Dec. 22.

LeBlanc and De Repentigny said they hoped an agreement would be reached before the holidays, removing the threat of an indefinite general strike in the new year.

Many participating unions have no strike fund. “We’re not happy [to be on strike] and we’re depriving ourselves of our salary, but we want to have the conditions that allow us to do our best as teachers,” De Repentigny said.

French-language school service centres on strike

Teachers at the main French-language public school service centres in the region are represented by a separate union, the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE). FAE members began an unlimited general strike Nov. 23, halting classes in the Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale (CSSC) and Centre de services scolaire des Premières-Seigneuries (CSSPS) service areas. The FAE submit- ted a counter-offer to Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel Dec. 1. As of this writing, LeBel hasn’t addressed the specifics of the offer. “We’re continuing our efforts [to reach an agree- ment] as soon as possible,” she tweeted.

Premier François Legault has publicly pleaded with FAE members to “think of the children” and end the strike – a gesture that the union denounced as emotional blackmail.

“When the premier told our FAE colleagues, ‘Go back to work’ – well, yes, but not under any conditions. Invest in the kids, invest in making schools a better place and improve working conditions, and that will impact the students,” LeBlanc said.