Press release
Common Front reaction to the government’s offers 

Impoverishing public service workers is the worst solution

Quebec City, December 15, 2022 – “Public services are facing an unprecedented labour crisis, to which is added historical inflation. What is the government doing? It is offering to impoverish the women, for the most part, and the men who carry on their shoulders the entire weight of our public networks”. These are the words of Common Front spokespersons François Enault, first vice-president of the CSN, Éric Gingras, president of the CSQ, Daniel Boyer, president of the FTQ, and Robert Comeau, president of the APTS, after having taken note of the offers of the Caquist government.

Wages

In its offers presented this morning to the Common Front partners, the government is proposing meagre increases of 3% for the first year, and 1.5% for the following years for a 5-year contract. Furthermore, it ignores the current stratospheric inflation by not presenting any measures to protect purchasing power. As for the proposed $1,000 lump sum, it is insulting to the women and men who hold the public service together because it is a one-time payment and is not calculated when it comes time to account for retirement income and vacation time. This is not a structural solution to the labour shortage.

The government’s wage offer is not only lower than what will be offered by the private sector but will make workers poorer because the government’s inflation forecast is much higher than what is on the table. While the government is forecasting 6.8% inflation in 2022, its 3% first-year offer will not protect workers from the rising cost of living.

“Is the government serious about the importance of public services? If so, why is it keeping the systems in a state of failure? Why is it offering so little knowing that other workers’ wages are going to increase more? The last two years of pandemics have given us a stark reminder of what is wrong with our public services. By putting such disadvantageous working conditions on the table, it is the labour shortage and all the problems it creates that he is choosing to perpetuate,” added the Common Front spokespersons. 

It should be remembered that public service workers lag behind other Quebec workers by 3.9% in their overall compensation, a gap that rises to 11.9% in terms of salaries. “Do you think people will choose public services or jobs with better conditions when they see these figures? It is not up to public service employees to pay for the economic recovery or the fight against inflation once again. Are our members – 78% of whom are women – going to be asked to tighten their belts once again to help the economy recover? If the government is serious about providing sustainable solutions for services to the population, it will have to go back to the drawing table and reconsider its offers,” said the spokespersons. 

The Common Front is demanding, on the one hand, a permanent mechanism to protect against inflation and, on the other hand, an enrichment aimed at a general salary catch-up. Thus, for the year 2023, it is demanding $100 per week or the CPI + 2% (depending on the most advantageous formula), for 2024, the CPI + 3% and, finally, for 2024, the CPI + 4%.

Employer and inter-union forums

  The government is returning with forums parallel to the bargaining tables, whereas the union organizations had unanimously rejected this formula in the last round of bargaining.

Working conditions and practices 

Finally, concerning working conditions, the Common Front will be closely monitoring the offers that will be tabled at the various sectorial tables starting today and between now and the holiday break. “Significant sums of money must be invested to allow concrete and lasting improvements in the education, health and social services networks as well as in higher education. It would be unthinkable for the government to choose to slash working conditions by imposing setbacks. This would be completely inconsistent with the generalized findings concerning public services. If the government wants to become an employer of choice again, as it claims, it must take the necessary steps to reverse the trend. The very future of public services depends on it“. 

Statistics to better understand what is at stake in these negotiations

– Average salary of public sector employees who are members of the Common Front: $43,916

– Salary backlog: -11.9%

– Overall compensation delay: -3.9%

– Percentage of women among Common Front members: 78 %

To understand the negotiations: www.frontcommun.org

About the Common Front

Together, the CSN, CSQ, FTQ and APTS represent more than 420,000 workers in the Quebec public sector, health and social services, education and higher education. The collective agreements will expire on March 31, 2023.

Source: Common Front (CSN, CSQ, FTQ, APTS)

Information

Noémi Desrochers, CSN	Cell : 514 216-1825	noemi.desrochers@csn.qc.ca">noemi.desrochers@csn.qc.ca
Maude Messier, CSQ	Cell : 514 213-0770	messier.maude@lacsq.org">messier.maude@lacsq.org
Jean Laverdière, FTQ	Cell : 514 893-7809	jlaverdiere@ftq.qc.ca">jlaverdiere@ftq.qc.ca
Maxime Clément, APTS	Cell : 514 792-0481	mclement@aptsq.com">mclement@aptsq.com