It was supposed to be a “long hot autumn” of work stoppages and pressure tactics, shutting down schools and aggravating the already stretched conditions in Quebec’s health-care system.

But the province’s Liberal government, which has had difficulties imposing its own downsizing agenda, seems to be holding its own so far in public-sector contract talks.

Quebec is in the midst of les négos, a province-wide round of negotiations to renew the collective agreements of 514,000 public-sector employees, from hospital janitors to brain surgeons, including teachers, provincial police and civil servants.

Despite their tough talk, the labour federations representing the core of about 435,000 civil servants, teachers and other employees of Quebec school boards and the Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (junior colleges), as well as nurses and other health-care employees, have pretty much held their fire. One-day walkouts by support staff closed schools and CÉGEPs with little fanfare. Teachers have cut back on after-school activities. But health care has been untouched.

In its first year, the Liberal government of Jean Charest faced sometimes violent demonstrations by union members angered by laws aimed at reducing their power.
One bill made easier the contracting out of work. Another reorganized the health-care system, bringing Quebec’s unique community health clinics under the wing of hospitals. A third, known as Bill 30, reduced the number of unions in Quebec hospitals to bring down costs.

Bill 30 had a devastating impact on the unions. It forced them into a period of raiding;
they had to compete for new members or to hang on to the ones they had. Because the unions were at each other’s throats, talks in the health-care sector got off to a slow start.

In the past, Quebec’s three main labour federations, the Quebec Federation of Labour, (better known by its French initials, FTQ), the Confédération des syndicats nationaux and the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (the teachers’ union) formed a common front — all for one, one for all.

In the current round of les négos, there are two fronts. The CSQ has worked a common front with unions representing about 60,000 civil servants. In June, the CSQ/civil service group of about 235,000 public employees came very close to a settlement.

The Quebec Treasury Board offered a 10% wage increase over six years. The unions held out for 12.5% over six years, a major rollback from their original demand of 12.5% in three years. The Treasury Board said, “No.”

The FTQ/CSN front, crippled by the raiding period, didn’t even come to the bargaining table in a serious way before September, proposing a 13.5% pact over five years.

Monique Jérôme-Forget, president of the Quebec Treasury Board, openly admires Margaret Thatcher and doesn’t mind at all the Dame de fer (Iron Lady) nickname the unions have given her.

If Charest had given Jérôme-Forget her way, she would have re-engineered the Quebec government. Instead, after some stern measures in the Liberals’ first year, the effort has been half-hearted. This has cooled union furor but put Charest’s promised billion-dollar tax cuts out of reach.

In dealing with the public sector, Jérôme-Forget set out her game plan in June 2004.
She proposed a six-year pact — double the past three-year deals — that would expire just as a new round of talks began, keeping the public sector in perpetual negotiations.

She said the government had the means to increase its payroll by only 12.6% in that six-year period, far short of the 2% annual wage increases the unions wanted. And her 12.6% envelope would also include the unresolved issue of pay equity.

The government now is offering an 8% wage increase over six years, plus pay equity and other benefits. The unions say this won’t even cover inflation.

The government has handled the negotiations well up to now. It remains to be seen whether it can reach an agreement it can live with — without provoking a major confrontation. But there is a chance. IE