An agreement in principle was reached between union members of the Société des establishments de plein air du Québec (Sépaq) and the employer, we learned on Saturday. The threat of a strike is unlikely to materialize.
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At the end of May, union members threatened to go on strike, but Christian Daigle, president of the Syndicat de la service publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ), said in mid-June that the option had been ruled out for the organization giving the negotiation a last chance.
It is therefore in the last few hours that the agreement between the union and the government was reached. It will be presented to union representatives on Tuesday.
If the agreement is accepted by the delegates, it will then be submitted to some 2,500 union members.
This is good news for the tens of thousands of Quebecers who have purchased an access card for national parks in the past few days.
Relations have been strained at Sépaq for months. The salary issue remains at the heart of the dispute. The employees mainly demand an increase indexed to inflation.
Employees threatened to hold a strike on June 24 this spring.
Last year, there were walkouts and an agreement was even reached, but unionized Sépaq employees finally voted almost 60% against the employers’ offer, sending the two parties back to their point of departure.
Without a collective agreement since January 2019, union representatives and the government returned to the bargaining table last March. However, the COVID-19 pandemic quickly cut short talks.
Quebec authorized Sépaq in mid-May to gradually resume its activities.
Recall that the Crown corporation manages twenty national parks and a marine park covering 7,017 km, as well as 13 wildlife reserves, an outfitter and eight tourist establishments.
