Quebec strikes: Labour minister appoints conciliator to reach deal with nurses' union

Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet announced the appointment of a conciliator, at the request of the FIQ, to try to bring the nurses' union and the Quebec government closer together on a deal.

The FIQ states that it requested the intervention of a conciliator "in view of the slowness of the table and the total lack of openness to compromise on the part of the government."

The union points out that, after 75 negotiating sessions, "very significant differences" persist on key issues, such as overtime management, nurse-patient ratios and compensation for various work-related inconveniences.

Premier François Legault mentioned last week that negotiations in the health-care sector were difficult, and that he did not foresee a possible settlement before January.

Meanwhile, the office of the Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel announced a new offer to the two union federations representing teachers.

It announced "an important formal offer" with the CSQ-affiliated Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE), which represents 95,000 teachers, and the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), which represents 66,000 teachers.

Education Minister Bernard Drainville assured the two federations that Quebec was "putting a lot on the table; these are really important improvements."

The FEA launched an indefinite strike on Nov. 23, almost four weeks ago. As for the FSE, its members went on strike for several days, at the same time as the common front of public sector unions.

For their part, the CSN, CSQ, APTS, and FTQ, which form the common front, met separately throughout the day on Tuesday to take stock of negotiations and decide on continuing the strike mandate they already had.

So far, the common front has held a one-strike day, then three in a row, then seven. It had already warned that the last seven-day sequence, from Dec. 8 to 14, would be the last before unlimited strike action.

However, it remains to be seen whether the unions, representing 420,000 workers in the education and health-care networks, will decide on the date of the unlimited strike. They might postpone their decision until January since negotiations are intensively with the government, according to both parties.

The four common front organizations have made it clear that everything will depend on the progress made in negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements, not only at the inter-sectoral level -- wages, pensions, regional disparities -- but also at the sectoral level - working time arrangements, workload, class composition, for example.

The four common front unions are due to publicly announce their intentions at a press conference on Wednesday morning. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 19, 2023.