FIQ nurses’ union ready to resume negotiations with Quebec

Members of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) are ready resume negotiations, after their members rejected the agreement in principle that had been reached with the government in March.

The FIQ represents more than 80,000 health workers, mainly nurses, in Quebec.

According to a press release on Tuesday, the FIQ says it remains united and wants to keep their primary objective in mind which is to have better working conditions.

“The conditions are totally unacceptable. You have nurses that are being forced to work 16 hours shifts or more at times, you have nurses that are forced to work in conditions which put their licence at risk,” said Alexandre Magdzinski, board member of Quebec Nurses’ Association.

“We are rolling up our sleeves, determined to make the voices of nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists heard and determined to continue to defend the conditions of care of the population and the public health network,” said FIQ president Julie Bouchard.

Earlier this month, 61 per cent of union members voted “no” to the proposal, which included a 17.4 percent salary increase over five years.

The demands by the FIQ include stability to healthcare professionals, respecting their expertise, better working conditions for full-time and part-time healthcare workers, improved access to overtime at double rate on weekends and bonuses.

“The whole issue with forced overtime, Quebec is one of the few places in the country which is till using forced overtimes which is resulting in a lot of nurses burning out and leaving the bedside,” said Magdzinski.

Also, the FIQ is calling on the new head of Santé Québec Geneviève Biron, and Health Minister Christian Dubé to listen to the healthcare professionals.

“Dubé asked our members to follow him blindly in a reform which is in reality only an empty shell, and this vagueness creates a lot of concern, both at the negotiating table and on the ground,” said Bouchard. “Our members are not suspicious for nothing, because as recent history demonstrates, the government is far from being an employer of choice.”

Jérôme Rousseau is the FIQ vice president.

He says negotiations may start as early as Wednesday.

“Perhaps tomorrow, with all reservations, we will return to the negotiating table to present our analysis of the rejection and, precisely, what requests we wish to improve in the agreement in principle,” concluded Rousseau.

The FIQ has more than 80,000 members such as nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists working in the health establishments across Quebec.

Magdzinski says the inability of retaining nurses adds to Quebec’s struggling healthcare system.

“There’s more mistakes, there’s more errors. It burns out the staff as well so you have more nurses leaving. You have more care staff leaving and it just exacerbates the problem,” said Magdzinski.

This time around, Magdzinski wants the government to really listen to nurses.

“You have a government that wants the bare minimum and a government that’s trying to privatize the health sector…can we develop something that will be able to get passed? We’ll see,” said Magdzinski.

-With files from La Presse Canadienne