2024-03-16 13:02:34
(Quebec) Members of the Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ) demonstrated their discontent on Saturday in the Old Capital, while there is still no agreement with the Quebec government for the renewal of the conventions collective of the majority of nurses in the public sector.
Updated yesterday at 3:56 p.m.
The president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard, spoke at the gathering point in front of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, shortly before noon, before starting a march to the National Assembly where the demonstrators wanted to hear their demands.
“What we are missing, for us to come to an agreement with the government, is for this collective agreement to have an FIQ color,” explained Ms. Bouchard, in an interview
By “FIQ color”, Ms. Bouchard means recognition of the expertise of healthcare professionals. She gives as an example a professional-patient ratio.
“Have a commitment to at least begin work to obtain professional-patient ratios in the public health network. Another example might be training. When a healthcare professional starts in a new department, we do not have to ask that the person be trained […] that it be done straight away,” explains Ms. Bouchard.
“Yes, there is the salary side which is very important, but what is even more visceral for us is everything that is safety and quality of care, it is extremely important. This is also why we are still in negotiations, because we did not find this aspect in the discussions, we had a complete closure on the part of the employer,” added the president of the FIQ.
The FIQ represents more than 80,000 nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists working in health establishments in the province.
This large union was not part of the common inter-union front which represented 420,000 workers in the public health and education sectors. The leaders of the CSN, the CSQ, the APTS and the FTQ finally came to an agreement with the government of François Legault following the holidays. The final settlement hypotheses were approved by the members in February.
A month ago, the FIQ denounced Quebec’s requests for “flexibility”, which, according to it, hid the desire to carry out forced transfers of nurses, who were reassigned, for example, from psychiatry to surgery.
Ms. Bouchard did not want to comment on this specific aspect on Saturday, so as not to harm the work of the negotiating table. However, she stressed that as the FIQ is currently in a “negotiations blitz”, the union hopes to receive a proposal for an agreement in principle within the next few hours or days.
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