In the freezing cold of this early morning of December 13, Gaëlle (she did not wish to give her last name) claps her hands to try to warm up. A teacher in a specialized school for children in difficulty in the wealthy Outremont district of Montreal, the young thirty-year-old, accompanied by a few colleagues, has been on strike for more than three weeks. Since November 23, its union, the Autonomous Federation of Education, which claims 66,000 members, launched a strike call “unlimited”. “The price to pay is heavy, we have no strike fund and I have therefore been without income since that date, underlines the young woman, but the fight for a salary increase and for the improvement of our working conditions is essential. If we don’t win, I’m not sure I’ll continue my career in teaching.”
Since the end of November, the entire public service – schools, hospitals, social services – has been at a standstill in Quebec. Unheard of in fifty years. In total, nearly 600,000 civil servants stopped working; some are engaged in a continuous strike, others, notably united under the aegis of a “ Common front » made up of several public sector unions, are increasing the number of walkouts.
As part of the renegotiation of collective agreements specific to each branch, the salary issue is at the heart of the demands. The Common Front is demanding a 23% increase in employee remuneration over five years, when the latest proposal from the government of Quebec Prime Minister François Legault (center-right nationalist), dated December 7, stuck to 12.7 % with a bonus of 1,000 dollars (680 euros) this year per civil servant and an improved offer for workers assigned to difficult hours, for a total envelope of 9 billion dollars. ” Insufficient “, responded the unions. Judging the supply to be lower than inflation forecasts, which are 18.1% by 2028 according to them, they estimated that it “would continue to impoverish public service workers” and unanimously rejected it.
“I live on credit”
“Since last year, I can no longer balance my budget, testifies Flora, a school assistant employed in an elementary school in Plateau, one of the downtown districts of the Quebec metropolis. My 28,000 dollars a year (i.e. 1,600 euros per month) no longer allows me to cope with the increase in my rent, up 15% this year, and that of food products. [+ 23 % depuis 2020]. To survive with my two children, I live on credit. » The forty-year-old keeps in her throat the 30% salary increase that Quebec MPs agreed to in the spring, as well as the $7.3 billion that the provincial government, supported by Ottawa, spent to convince the Swedish company Northvolt to come and build an electric battery factory in Quebec. “There is money in Quebec, but not for public services”she laments.
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