Pay increases are at the top of the unions’ list of demands. They’re seeking raises to match inflation, plus additional sums to provide what the groups in a statement called a “general catch-up pay increase.”
As staff shortages affect Quebec’s education, health and social service institutions, Eric Gingras, president of the Centrale des syndicats du Quebec — an organization that includes teacher and health-care worker unions — said higher salaries are necessary to preserve the public workforce.
LeBel said in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday morning that the government’s goal is to reach agreements with workers’ unions “as quickly as possible” to avoid disruptions to those services. She insisted, however, that unions demonstrate more “flexibility” in the collective bargaining process.“We can’t keep taking the same action and expect a different result,” LeBel said.
But Gingras rejected the suggestion that public sector employees need to do more, saying union flexibility in the past only served to make way for poor political decisions. “It’s not about flexibility,” he said. “It’s time to give better salaries and better working conditions. It’s not time to ask more from the workers that work in the public services.”