A lawyer for a major Quebec health-care union said that Health Minister Christian Dubé went for the jugular and "spilled his anti-union bile" on the FIQ during a news conference he gave last November in an attempt to bring nurses back into the public network because of the lack of personnel due to COVID-19.
The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé (FIQ) made its case on Monday before the Administrative Labour Tribunal.
The tribunal is hearing the complaint of bad faith bargaining and obstruction of union activities against the Quebec government, based on Ministerial Order 071 and Dube's statements.
The parties have now reached the pleadings stage.
The FIQ is criticizing the fact that Ministerial Order 071 provided for various premiums and measures, totalling $1 billion, to bring back full-time nurses to the public network, without this having been negotiated with the unions, who are the bargaining agents.
The premiums were decided unilaterally by Quebec.
At the time, the FIQ had just negotiated the renewal of its collective agreement, with clauses to create more full-time positions, and it had been told that there was no more money in the government coffers, that it had gone to the end of what the government could give.
The FIQ is now seeking to demonstrate that by doing so, the government undermined its credibility with its members, attacked it publicly at a news conference, negotiated in bad faith and hindered its activities.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 30, 2022.
