Strike in education: “To resolve it, it takes balanced classes”, support the unions

To get the message across, rallies are planned throughout the day on Monday across the four corners of Quebec.

In addition to improving the composition of the class, the main requests from teachers are to lighten the workload and improve the remuneration of teaching staff.

For example, around 2,000 teachers are expected Monday morning behind the offices of the Ministry of Education in Quebec.

Demonstration of professional school staff

Hundreds of members of the Federation of Educational Professionals of Quebec (FPPE-CSQ) on strike will also meet Monday morning at Champlain Park in Trois-Rivières. The gathering aims to take stock of the progress of sectoral negotiations and to talk about the reality of professional personnel, “an issue that we hear less about,” according to the FPPE.

School support staff also on strike

The Federation of School Support Personnel (FPSS-CSQ) is also planning meetings on Monday to take stock of the state of negotiations at the sectoral tables which affect the specific issues of school support personnel. A demonstration must take place Monday morning in front of the head office of the Pointe-de-l’Île School Service Center in Pointe-aux-Trembles.

The union says it has noticed progress at the negotiating tables, but that “there is still a long way to go.”

Difficult negotiations

Members of the Common Front — representing thousands of workers in education, higher education, health and social services — are in their third sequence of strikes. They returned to the streets on December 8 and will be there until December 14.

The Common Front says it is ready to launch an indefinite general strike if there is no agreement with the government by the end of the year.

It is planned that the four members of the common front will meet again on December 18 and 19 to take stock of the progress of the negotiations.

On December 6, the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, tabled a new salary offer of 12.7% over five years to all state employees, but the unions found it insufficient. The next day, Prime Minister François Legault said he was ready to be more generous “monetarily”, but he demanded more flexibility in the application of collective agreements.

Remember that the 66,000 teachers of the Autonomous Education Federation (FAE) have been on an indefinite general strike since November 23.