Members of the Montérégie Professionals Union (SPPM-CSQ) and the New Frontiers Professionals Association demonstrated yesterday, June 9, on the occasion of a third day of strike action.
The schools of the Grandes-Seigneuries School Service Center were therefore closed by picket lines in the morning. In Châteauguay, professionals demonstrated in front of the offices of the New Frontiers School Board and the Châteauguay Valley Vocational Training Center in Ormstown.
The New Frontiers School Board elementary and secondary schools canceled their classes for the day, while the Adult Education Centers were open in the afternoon and evening.
Professionals demonstrated in front of the offices of the New Frontiers School Board. (Photo: Courtesy)
For months, education professionals have been asking the Quebec government “to negotiate fairly with all stakeholders in the school network to avoid a massive exodus to the private sector in the coming weeks.”
The unions say that there is a significant wage gap between the staff of the education network, made up mainly of women, and their counterparts in the public service, the parapublic and the private sector.
“By choosing to make salary adjustments targeting only the group of teachers, the government is creating an imbalance that undermines the entire education network,” said Dominique Gagné, vice-president of the SPPM-CSQ, in a press release. .
The members fear “serious problems of attraction and retention in the network, in all the employment groups which all contribute to the success of the pupils and to the functioning of the school”.
“The real mystery will be how many professionals will remain in their posts, at the end of the day,” adds the vice-president.
The Montérégie Professionals’ Union (SPPM-CSQ) represents more than 1,300 members, of which nearly 250 come from the Grandes-Seigneuries School Services Center. Like the 35 of the New Frontiers Association of Professionals, they are psychologists, psychoeducators and psychoeducators, speech therapists, guidance counselors and counselors, remedial teachers as well as staff in the administrative and educational sectors.
With the collaboration of Paula Dayan-Perez
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