Post-strike catch-up for schools: Union president says Quebec doesn't need to cut spring break, extend semester

With the post-strike catch-up plan to be unveiled on Tuesday, CSQ president Éric Gingras believes it's possible to "make adjustments" without cutting spring break or extending classes into June.

The Centrale des syndicats du Québec, which is part of the common front, only held eight strike days, unlike the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, which held a month-long walkout.

At a press conference to mark the start of the January school year in Montreal on Monday, Gingras pointed out that days are always set aside for snowstorms, ice storms and other situations during the school year.

He also hopes that the Ministry of Education will leave it up to the schools to decide and show "flexibility" since the situation could be different in Gaspésie, Saguenay and on Montreal's South Shore.

The CSQ president also notes that he would have liked the ministry to have consulted the players involved in education rather than making its announcement unilaterally, as it is set to do on Tuesday.

"Everyone has to roll up their sleeves, has some work to do. If there are adjustments, we're ready to discuss them," Gingras said. "We don't want our backs to the wall. We don't want things imposed on us."

On the subject of the common front's agreement in principle, which was approved by the respective bodies of the four union organizations and will be submitted to the 420,000 members starting in mid-January, Gingras said he was "confident."

CSQ president Eric Gingras lays out the union's plans for this year during a press conference Monday, Jan. 8, 2024 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

The CSQ does not "recommend" the agreement to its members but "submits" it to them. It's not that the CSQ isn't fully satisfied with the agreement; it prefers to leave all the latitude to its members once they have all the information at the information meetings.

"I'm very comfortable with having confidence. We think we're presenting something interesting. I trust our members to make the best reading," said the CSQ president.

He noted, for example, that school support employees who live in precarious conditions with 17-hour work weeks will see their situation improve. And there have also been advances in terms of classroom aids to lighten teachers' workloads, he added, preferring to leave the details to his federations.

As for the negotiations themselves, the CSQ president reiterated that another way would have to be found to avoid the "psychodrama" of long and difficult negotiations.

The next agreement -- if approved by the members -- will last five years, giving the parties, accustomed to three-year contracts, some breathing space.

He continues to believe that "it doesn't make sense" that negotiations have lasted this long. The union demands were tabled in autumn 2022; the management offers in December 2022. The assumption of a common front settlement came on December 28, 2023.

"There's something to think about. I think it's the public who can put the best pressure on the government to say 'never again'," said Gingras. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 8, 2024.