25,000 Quebec professional workers adopt strike mandate

About 25,000 Quebec government professionals adopted a strike mandate – to be called at a later date.

The Syndicat des professionnels du gouvernement du Québec (SPGQ) are an independent union, not part of the Common front.

Its members work in various government departments and agencies. They include computer analysts, inspectors, biologists, accountants and land surveyors.

Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a lighter strike mandate advocating evening, weekend and statutory holiday strikes, supported by 80 per cent, and a stronger mandate that could be counted in minutes, hours or days to an unlimited strike, supported by 70 per cent of members.

In an interview on Monday, Guillaume Bouvrette, president of the SPGQ, explained that it is a union body made up of representatives from its 33 sections that will decide what form a walkout might take, if any.

“These are two tools in our toolbox. They have the latitude to choose”, depending on “developments at the bargaining tables”, explained Bouvrette.

“This is no mean feat, given that Quebec public service professionals have often hesitated in the past to resort to such heavy-handed pressure tactics, for fear of special legislation. And that’s something that has changed in recent years,” reported Bouvrette.

In addition to the wage issue, as is the case for employees in the education, health and social services sectors, the issue of telecommuting is a priority for the SPGQ.

“For the professionals we represent, teleworking conditions are at the top of the priority list, simply because their tasks generally lend themselves well to it. What we’re denouncing is the current inflexible policy of the Conseil du trésor: everyone is asked to be in the office two days a week, without taking into account the realities of different positions, specializations and sometimes family realities. If there’s no added value in going to the office, because you sit in an open cubicle and work by videoconference all day, you wonder why you do it at all,” sums up Bouvrette.

He deplores the fact that, after almost a year of negotiations, “no subject has been settled”.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 27, 2023, and translated by CityNews.