Magali Picard named President of the FTQ – first women & Indigenous person to hold the title

Magali Picard has been named the new president of The Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) – Quebec’s largest union. She is the first woman and the first Indigenous person to hold the title. She joined us for an interview.

1. Congratulations on this new role. First woman, first Indigenous person at the head of the FTQ. This has been described as a historic moment. What new perspectives do you hope to bring to the FTQ?

Every time we change the president or the CEO of an enterprise, this person comes with his own personality, his experience. So, I really want to share what I did throughout my career as a union activist. I also want to demonstrate to all the women, the equity people, people who are part of different culture that they’re more than welcome with the FTQ. It’s been years that we are fighting for rights, for justice, for everyone. But what I’m hearing so far, and I’ve just been elected last week, that there’s a lot of women and a lot of people from different communities who are telling me, you know Magali, there’s a lot of hope. So, I understand it’s coming with a lot of responsibilities, but I’m ready and I hope that they’re going to be proud and that they feel that they’ve got their place to be a union activist with us.

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2. You’re speaking for some 600,000 workers in Quebec. What’s on your list of top priorities when you’re going to be representing them to the CAQ government?

First of all, you probably know that the negotiation with the public service workers started a few months ago. It’s not going well. You probably know that that the proposal from this government, we’re talking about nine per cent of raise over the next five years. It’s hard to understand that that government, knowing what those people are going through in their workplace, knowing the inflation, the indexation, are looking at them and say that’s the best we can do for you, knowing also that the same government just gave to their managers, and the people who are having the biggest positions with the government, just had a raise in 2023 of up to 20 per cent. I find it and we find it very shameful. That’s going to be one of our first fight to make sure that our people are respected, that they can work with dignity, being appreciated for what they’re doing. That’s one of our top priority.

3. We know right now it’s hard in the public sector for nurses. Overcrowded hospitals as well as forced overtime. What are you going to do to make this profession more appealing? Because we do need more nurses working for the government of Quebec.

Yes, I fully agree with you. But you know what? We need nurses, but we need everybody who are working in the hospital. It’s terrible what those people are facing right now. We’ve got a lot of proposals but the thing is, right now, it’s hard to be heard. We are pushing this government. We are trying to negotiate with them. And, I can tell you right now, I think that their mindset is so much to bring those people towards the private sector. This is the way I see it, because the way that they’re keeping them, the condition that they’re were putting those people, it’s not secure for the population. It’s not even secure for them. Our people are more than open to work with this government, but so far it’s very difficult because the way we see it, they want to manage on their own. So we need to speak louder. We need to be more present. And, this is what we are going to do.