CLAIMS. Meeting as a general council, the Alliance of Professional and Technical Staff in Health and Social Services (APTS) unanimously voted in favor of a strike mandate lasting no more than 10 days and will submit the proposal to its 60,000 members at a general assembly, more than 5,000 of whom work in Mauricie and Center-du-Québec.
This decision comes as mediation seems to be stuck, the Legault government still refusing to address the solutions provided by the union to improve working conditions in the health and social services network.
“We have been trying to negotiate with the Legault government for 16 months and it has hardly budged. Worse, the proposals mentioned by spokespersons for the Conseil du trésor constitute major setbacks, which would have the effect of increasing the work overload and encouraging the exodus of our members from the public health and social services network. There are 18 days left in this mediation for the government to submit offers that tangibly improve working conditions. Otherwise we will have no other choice but to ask our members to vote for a strike mandate, ”said Jean-Christophe Côté-Benoît, national representative for the APTS MCQ.
A series of general assemblies will be held on April 6, 7 and 8 in which members will be called to vote for a term of up to 10 days of strike action, which will be exercised at the time deemed opportune by the APTS. .
“We negotiated in good faith. We have prioritized our requests. We worked in a pandemic context where we suspended the rights included in our employment contract. We have been holding the network at arm’s length for years, reform after reform, to the detriment of our physical and mental health. While we are the guarantors of the quality of care and services offered to the population, how is the government thanking us during the pandemic? By refusing to grant us COVID bonuses in hospitals, by giving juicy contracts to the private sector and by reducing our working conditions. It is contemptuous and insulting, ”lamented Mr. Côté-Benoît.
The Legault government seeks, among other things, to increase the number of hours of work in a regular day, which would go up to 12 hours, which would only increase the work overload while preventing family-work balance. For the APTS, making such a proposal a reality would harm the health of professional and technical staff and worsen the state of exhaustion of its members, who have been fighting COVID-19 for nearly a year.
“The labor shortage is generalized throughout the CIUSSS MCQ, waiting lists are growing in all areas, work overload affects all the job titles we represent and autonomy professionalism of our members is constantly violated. Is it unreasonable to ensure that measures are put in place to encourage the attraction and retention of professional and technical personnel and thus tackle burnout? If a strike is called by the APTS, Prime Minister Legault will have only himself to blame because he will have knowingly ignored our just and legitimate demands, ”he said.
The results of the consultations are expected to be known in mid-May. (CGM)
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