FIQ nurses’ union kicks off new 4-day strike
Posted December 11, 2023 7:00 am.
Last Updated December 11, 2023 6:41 pm.
Thousands of nurses, nursing assistants and other health professionals are back on strike beginning Monday.
The 80,000 unionized workers with the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé (FIQ) launched a four-day strike scheduled to end Thursday.
Last week the FIQ voted overwhelmingly to reject the Quebec government’s latest offer, which included a 12.7 per cent pay rise over five years.
The union called that offer “insufficient” and “barely covering inflation.”
The FIQ’s latest job action coincides with strike days for the 420,000 members represented by the four Common Front unions, who are striking until Dec. 14.
“The nurses need better working conditions, they need better pay, our profession needs to be respected, it’s an essential service and the public service is important and should be valued, and not just the private sector. We need to support our nurses in the public sector,” says Anita Sharma, a nurse clinician and member of the FIQ union.
“We’re not just pawns, we’re not just one size fits all, we’re all specialized in our unit, in our department. There’s different communities, different populations that each nurses has experience with and if we get moved around it’s going to translate to poor healthcare in general, frustration with nurses and again less retention. We need to retain nurses.”
“We want to be able to care for our patient in our best capacities. So for that, we need a good working condition,” said Naussicca Hour, nurse at Jewish General Hospital and FIQ member. “There’s a lot of workload, a lot of patient per nurses. So it’s really difficult to give the care that we want to give to the patient. And also when missing staff, like we have not a lot of nurses to be there, so it adds to our workload.”
“We want to have better ratio with the patient care. And that’s what we’re outside today, picketing on the strike line,” said Jimmy Sincere, Respiratory therapist, St. Mary’s Hospital.
“We want to go out and continue striking if we have to…If the government is willing to offer us a better work condition, it’s going to benefit the patients and the public by the care that we’ll be providing. And that’s what we’re advocating. It’s really at the end of the day, it comes down to the patient. And that’s what we’re trying to pass as a message to Legault and the government.”
“The first time in history that a government has removed the premium during negotiations and made our members three and a half percent poorer, whilst we were asking that that premium be increased. That premium is there to show the respect and the work that we do as healthcare professionals,” added Stavros Birbatakos President, FIQ-SPSCODIM union.
“Our members, as you can see, are here. They will be here in force. The mandate that we gave our negotiating committee was to go as far as a general unlimited strike. If that is what is necessary for this government to get up and negotiate in good faith, which they have not done in the past…We are here. If we need to go on general unlimited strike, we are ready and so are our members.”
Treasury Board President Sonia Lebel writing on social media Monday afternoon: “I assure Quebecers that the government negotiation teams are sparing no effort at the tables: discussions are taking place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, continuously, at all levels and with all trade unions.”
The latest strikes are the third such walkout since early November and meanwhile, around 66,000 teachers who are members of the FAE union have been on an unlimited strike since Nov. 23.
On Sunday, representatives from the Common Front unions said they are expected to update members beginning in a week.
The collective of CSN, CSQ, APTS and FTQ unions say they are considering a potential unlimited strike come January, if needed.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said last week he’s open to offering workers more money but wants unions to make concessions on issues like flexibility in scheduling and transfer of workers between facilities.
