Quebec Premier: negotiations with teachers are going ‘well, very well,’ unions disagree
Posted December 13, 2023 11:17 am.
Last Updated December 13, 2023 12:52 pm.
Premier François Legault believes that negotiations with teachers are going “well, very well”, while the two federations concerned were, until a few hours ago, still far from a settlement.
Both the 95,000 teachers of the Fédération des syndicats de l’enseignement (FSE), affiliated to the CSQ, and the 66,000 of the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), are currently on strike. The former are on strike until Thursday inclusively, while the latter have been on indefinite strike since November 23.
Meeting reporters on his way into the National Assembly on Wednesday, Legault said he was even “hopeful that all children will return to school as early as Monday”.
The FAE quickly responded on social media, writing that, “contrary to what François Legault says, the news at the table is not encouraging. The government is blowing hot and cold. It promises us openness, only to close the door again. The government’s strategy is clearly to divide the movement and exhaust the teachers. Don’t get on François Legault’s rollercoaster. Stand tall, proud and united.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Patrick Bydal, vice-president of the FAE, said that “just because we’re talking doesn’t mean we’re about to settle”.
And the president of the FSE, Josée Scalabrini, felt that the solutions proposed by the unions to alleviate the problems associated with teachers’ heavy workloads and class composition were still too little discussed.
Teachers in Montreal take to the streets
The Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) came together in Montreal on Wednesday. They met at the foot of Mount Royal and marched towards Premier Legault’s office on Sherbrooke, near McGill College.
They held green and white Common Front flags and signs that said “Holding it Together” as they marched.
Others wore life jackets and held a poster that showed a sinking Titanic – renamed ‘S.S. Quebec Education’ – with an ‘S.O.S.’ blurb – adding “workload, class compositor, salary, working conditions” in the water below.
With files from La Presse Canadienne, first published in French on Dec. 13, 2023, and translated by CityNews.
