(Montreal) The president of the FIQ, Nancy Bédard, faces opposition at the head of the large nursing union organization.
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Lia Levesque
The Canadian Press
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The vice-president, Denyse Joseph, has also expressed her interest in the position of president of the Interprofessional Health Federation.
The FIQ, which has 76,000 members, nurses, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and others, is currently holding its congress in Saint-Hyacinthe. The election for president will take place on Thursday.
We are now talking about the “regrouping” of the FIQs, since there is also the FIQP – P for private.
Mme Bédard is a nurse who comes from the CHU de Québec, while Mme Joseph comes from the Montreal General Hospital (McGill University Health Center). She is currently vice-president responsible for union organization, education and animation.
And the negotiations
The FIQ has already reached an agreement in principle with the Quebec government on the working conditions of its members. This agreement in principle deals in particular with the creation of attractive full-time positions, which should help reduce compulsory overtime – the famous OST.
However, the FIQ did not succeed in reaching an agreement on the salary issue.
The FIQ announced on May 25 that it was going to seek strike mandates from its members, considering that there were “no significant wage offers at the negotiating table”.
Except that on May 29, the FTQ union center reached a comprehensive agreement in principle, which includes both working conditions and wages.
However, traditionally, “intersectoral” issues such as wages are negotiated by the inter-union common front, or, when there is none, as is currently the case, by the central unions.
And the FTQ settled for increases of 2% in 2020-2021, then 2% in 2021-2022 and 2% in 2022-2023, with larger salary increases for the lowest employees.
It remains to be seen what the FIQ regrouping will do in the face of the new situation created by the agreement between the FTQ and Quebec.
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