2023-11-08 12:28:38
(Montréal) La Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), qui réunit 80 000 professionnelles en soins, sera à nouveau en grève les 23 et 24 novembre. Mercredi, elles ont été nombreuses à manifester pour de meilleures conditions de travail.
« Les [députés] 30% salary increases are voted for and we have nothing, we have little crumbs. We are essential and it is time for us to prove it,” says transfusion medicine nurse Marie-Josée Bernard, who demonstrated Wednesday morning in front of the CHUM alongside around a hundred colleagues.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Members of the FIQ also walked out in front of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
The strike began at midnight on Wednesday and will continue for 48 hours. This is the first FIQ strike in almost 25 years. Two additional days of strike will take place on November 23 and 24.
Many motorists honked their horns to encourage the demonstrators gathered on the sidewalk in front of the hospital center. “I really find that we have the support of the population and I don’t think that that will change,” rejoiced Mélanie Brunel, nurse in the operating room.
“It’s not cheerfulness of heart”
“It is essential that we have progress at the table. We don’t go on strike out of joy, it’s because our limits have been reached for too long. It’s a way to make yourself heard by a contemptuous government, which does not understand our reality,” declared the president of the FIQ, Julie Bouchard, in a press release.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Julie Bouchard
The FIQ brings together nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and clinical perfusionists. Essential services must be maintained despite the strike, but certain care may be slowed down on certain units, indicates the Federation.
“If we have to go on strike, it is because the government refuses to listen to us. The salary increase proposals will make us poorer since they do not even cover inflation. And above all, the government wants to take a healthcare professional and move her anywhere, whenever it wants. This is madness and we will not accept that,” declared Mme Bouchard, adding that “it’s inhumane for the workers” and “downright dangerous” for the patients.
Many demands
In addition to salaries, the FIQ is demanding a law on safe nurse/patient ratios, as well as more stability in positions. The union organization complains that the government wants to be able to move nurses between care units, establishments, and even shifts, as needed. The nurses believe that they would be treated like interchangeable pawns.
The president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, believes that she must review the organization of work – it is even her priority in the present negotiations – in order to be able to better respond to needs.
Last week, the Legault government offered salary increases of 10.3% over five years for the 600,000 state employees, in addition to bonuses representing 3% for certain categories of workers and a lump sum for all of 1,000 $ the first year.
With The Canadian Press
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