Quebec nurses to begin voting Tuesday on conciliator’s proposal for new collective agreement

The 80,000 members of the FIQ are being asked to vote from Tuesday 8 p.m. to Thursday 8 p.m. on the renewal of their collective agreement. This comes after general assemblies were held in the previous weeks to inform members on the content of the conciliator’s proposal.

The Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) represents the vast majority of nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists in Quebec.

What was recommended by the conciliator was a proposal, and not an agreement in principle. This recommendation was presented by the conciliator as “a reasonable balance between the parties,” the FIQ reported when the proposal was announced.

• If this recommendation is ratified by the members, it would become the FIQ collective agreement. If it’s not, the parties would likely have to return to the negotiating table.

An agreement in principle was reached between the parties, but the members rejected it, in a vote of 61 per cent, last spring. Since this rejection, as part of the discussions that followed, the “mobility “flexibility” being asked of nurses has been further defined, according to information the FIQ presented to its members.

This question of “flexibility” of nurses moving from one care unit to another, or even from one establishment to another, was at the heart of the dispute and the main reason why the agreement in principle was rejected.