Sixty teachers who were trying to camp out in front of the Ministry of Education were evicted overnight.
The teachers belong to the Federation Autonome des Enseignants, the union that represents about 34,000 French school board teachers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil and other areas near the island of Montreal.
They are holding three days of strikes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week in a bid to win a better contract from the provincial government.
The group had set up the protest camp on Wednesday in a grassy area near the Fullum St. offices of the Ministry of Education, but on Wednesday evening police ordered the protesters to strike their tents and move on.
"It's unacceptable the situation. We were very peaceful, everybody was sleeping, we're in the middle of the night" said FAE vice-president Alain Marois.
"The government, just like they treat us at the tables of negotiation, has a police state right now that we're living and has no respect for teachers."
In a communiqué the president of the FAE, Sylvain Mallette, said the eviction was a lack of respect.
"This intolerable act bears witness to the scorn the government has toward teachers in Quebec. The people responsible for this eviction have no respect for public school teachers fighting for better working conditions," wrote Mallette.
Many public worker unions in Quebec have joined together in a common front to negotiate new contracts, but the FAE formally split off from this group several weeks ago.
In the past week several union umbrella groups have made agreements in principle concerning many points in workplace contracts
