FIQ members vote overwhelmingly in favour of strike action

MONTREAL – After two days of electronic voting, members of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé ( FIQ) have decided to join the public sector strike on November 8 and 9.

Held on Tuesday and Wednesday, the electronic vote garnered the support of 74 per cent of its 80,000 members, 95 per cent of whom voted in favour of a walkout ranging from a one-day strike to an unlimited general strike.

“We’re talking about nearly 60,000 professionals who voted in favor of a strike, which is unprecedented. It’s a very, very strong and very telling mandate,” said FIQ President Julie Bouchard in a telephone interview.

“And it’s a sign of just how fed up health care professionals are with their current working conditions, and how ready they are to do anything to ensure that they get better ones, and better pay too,” the unionist added to The Canadian Press.

In addition to wage increases, nurses are demanding an end to mandatory overtime and lower patient-to-nurse ratios.

This single electronic poll differs from that of the inter-union Common Front, which includes the CSQ, APTS, FTQ and CSN, who consulted their members union by union over a four-week period. Most of the common front unions also supported the strike at rates approaching 90 per cent.

Despite the strike, essential services will continue to be provided, as ordered by the Administrative Labor Tribunal last June in anticipation of the potential labor dispute.

“The care professionals have patients’ health at heart. Their goal is to put pressure on the employer, not the patients. Quebecers can count on the professionalism of care professionals in the healthcare network,” assured the FIQ in a press release.

In addition to the two strike days scheduled for early November, the FIQ is not closing the door on continuing the walkout if negotiations with Quebec fail to reach a satisfactory agreement.

“We’ve been at the negotiating table for almost a year, and we’re still faced with an employer who turns a deaf ear when we speak out,” said Bouchard. “We’re starting with two days of strike action (…) and then we’ll see if the government makes any progress, if it’s really ready to negotiate.”

“Already our working conditions are very difficult, what François Legault wants to do is degrade them even further by treating us like interchangeable pawns. He has no respect for our professional judgment or our personal lives,” the president also said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on October 25, 2023.