FIQ nurses: 500 days without a contract, considering stepping up pressure tactics

The FIQ nurses union says negotiations with Quebec have reached an impasse, and they are considering stepping up pressure tactics – in the near future.

The Conseil du trésor, or the province’s Treasury Board, maintains that there is no impasse.

The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé (FIQ) has been without a collective agreement for 500 days.

At a press conference in Montreal on Monday, FIQ President Julie Bouchard reiterated that negotiations are “at an impasse” and are stalled over the issue of nurses’ expected mobility.

Health establishment managers want to be able to move nurses from one care unit to another, or even from one establishment to another, in response to needs. Nurses see this as a refusal to recognize their expertise, and a way of regarding them as interchangeable pawns.

The FIQ had reached an agreement in principle with Quebec, but it was its members who rejected it – 61 per cent. And it is precisely this question of mobility that most irritates nurses, as revealed by the consultation held after the rejection of the agreement.

The Treasury Board holding its ground. “The status quo is not an option in order to offer the health care to which the population is entitled,” it replied to the FIQ.

“The government’s objectives will remain the same,” he insisted.

And the strike?

The FIQ already has a strike mandate, which is still in force. Its members walked off the job for several days in November and December 2023.

Should we expect more strike action soon? “Is this the first thing we’ll be doing? No. We have other pressure tactics planned,” replied Bouchard, without revealing them.

However, the FIQ says it is ready to strike again, if necessary. “Obviously, if we have to go on strike, we will,” concluded Bouchard.

The Treasury Board, for its part, points out that it has already reached agreements with the other public-sector unions. “We have reached agreements with the other unions, notably on the subject of mobility.”

However, the other unions represent only a small number of nurses, since over 90 per cent are represented by the FIQ.

Both the FIQ and the Treasury Board are each inviting the other party to negotiate an agreement, after 500 days. “The government is reaching out to the FIQ to continue discussions and negotiations,” said the Treasury.

The FIQ says it has proposed solutions in recent months, but the government has rejected them “out of hand”, says Bouchard. She therefore invites the government to “get into solution mode and propose things that will get us out of this impasse”.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews