Public-service union calling for arbitrator in negotiations with Quebec

The Syndicat de professionnelles et professionnels du gouvernement du Québec (SPGQ), which represents 24,000 public service workers, is requesting the intervention of an arbitrator in the negotiations surrounding the renewal of its members’ collective agreement.

The SPGQ is one of the three large public-sector union organizations that have still not settled with the Quebec government regarding the renewal of collective agreements, with the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec and the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé.

In a press release issued Saturday morning, SPGQ president Guillaume Bouvrette denounced that “nothing is moving” after 51 negotiation meetings.

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He said the union was assured that negotiations would be intensified, but was only offered half a day of negotiations in the next two weeks.

“We are promised the same increases as the common front, but they have never been tabled. Official salary offers are still at 12.7 per cent over five years. We have had more than enough of being fooled by management,” Bouvrette said.

Friday, the common front, which is made up of the APTS, the CSQ, the FTQ and the CSN, announced its members accepted by 74.8 per cent the agreement in principle, which provided for salary increases of 17.4 per cent over five years, to which was added a protection clause against inflation, which could go up to one per cent for the last three years of the collective agreement if inflation exceeds a certain threshold.

The SPGQ still has a mandate in favor of pressure tactics, which can go as far as an unlimited general strike.

Its negotiating committee will meet with its authorities next week to take stock of the situation and “agree on the strategy to adopt.”