Quebec nurses’ union to submit adjusted list of demands Monday

The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) will submit an adjusted list of demands Monday as part of negotiations with Quebec for the renewal of its members’ collective agreements.

The FIQ, which represents 80,000 nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists, made the announcement in a press release Sunday.

Jérôme Rousseau, vice-president of the FIQ and co-responsible for negotiations, told The Canadian Press at the beginning of last week that the union already intended to review and reduce its demands before Treasury Board president Sonia LeBel asked the public sector unions to do so.

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LeBel committed at the end of September to reducing her demands to five, and invited the unions to do the same.

“Basically, for us, very little will change,” Rousseau said. “Our adjusted requests demonstrate our good faith, but we remain extremely far from an agreement. The government is offering us nine per cent over five years as a salary increase. In addition, it wants to remove any form of stability from health-care professionals to treat them like interchangeable pawns. We will never accept that.”

The FIQ’s demands concern better salary, an improvement to workloads and a better work-life balance, the union said.

Union representatives affiliated with the FIQ will meet Tuesday and Wednesday to review the revised list of demands and discuss the upcoming strike vote.

The union said Sunday it would not grant an interview before that meeting.

—This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews