At 10:00 a.m. on June 25, the government announced the agreement in principle reached with representatives of the Common Front: Claudette Carbonneau from the CSN, Michel Arsenault from the FTQ and Réjean Parent from the SISP. Your union’s delegates will learn the full details of this agreement and decide whether to accept it at an FSSS meeting on June 20, in Saint-Hyacinthe. After that, all the members of you union will vote on it at your general membership meeting.

The proposed agreement is for five years. It provides fixed increases of 6%, a 1% increase at the end of five years as protection against inflation, and mechanisms linked to the Gross Domestic Product (the GDP, use to calculate Québec’s collective wealth) that could result in additional increases of up to 3.5%.

Besides pay, the agreement covers pensions and sets up a working group to examine solutions to the problems of attracting and retaining skilled workers.

The sectoral agreements

On Wednesday, June 23, close to 500 delegates from FSSS unions voted in favour of the agreement in principle on sectoral matters, after a three-day meeting during which they assessed the various measures improving our collective agreement.

Thanks to everyone’s mobilization and the relentless work of the bargaining committees, the CPNSSS (Comité patronal de négociation du secteur de la santé et des services sociaux – management bargaining committee for the health and social services sector) was forced to back down on all its demands for rollbacks. Gains obtained include improvements in evening, night and critical-care premiums; annual budgets for measures covering in particular workers in the Far North, employees working in CHSLDs, CRDIs and youth centres; organization of work projects; substantial increases in the employer’s contribution to group insurance plans; a joint national committee on privatization, with the government recognizing the need to maintain public services, safeguard jobs and develop public expertise; local health and safety committees; etc.

For FSSS-CSN president Francine Lévesque, “We have finally won back our right to free collective bargaining. Obtaining a satisfactory agreement for all classes of personnel is a great victory for our federation!”

Between now and September, your union will hold a general membership meeting at which you will be asked to vote on the entire proposed collective agreement: both the central table agreement on pay and pensions, and the sectoral agreement on the other matters.

Once again, congratulations on your mobilization!

Your FSSS Bargaining Committees