Quebec’s largest nurses’ union is preparing to re-enter negotiations with the provincial government after the latest agreement in principle was rejected by its members.
Unionized workers with the Fédération Interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ) rejected the proposed collective agreement – 61 per cent of members voted “no” to the proposal that included a 17.4 per cent increase over five years.
FIQ member Naveed Hussain, a nurse at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), says nurses working in hospitals in clinics were unhappy with the proposal.
“With the cost of living going up, with the opportunity to try to buy a home, if I’m working on my current salary as just a nurse in the hospital, it is impossible,” Hussain said. “Many young people feel the same way, especially in the health-care system. So I had to take on two jobs. I had to try to start my own business. These are the things that I’m doing.
“Nurses can’t afford it.”
Meetings will take place with local union representatives throughout Quebec until Tuesday to identify problematic elements of the offer. The following week, concerns will be discussed before negotiations with the Quebec government continue.
The FIQ has more than 80,000 members, and about 90 per cent of them are women who primarily work as nurses.
“What we’re seeing right now is a brain drain in Quebec,” Hussain said. “Nurses are leaving the profession or they’re leaving the province wholesale to start a new opportunity elsewhere. And I feel the government of Quebec does not understand the consequences of its actions right now.”
The FIQ had recommended the Quebec government’s last offer to its members after 15 months of negotiations and several strike days.
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“The government of Quebec keeps stating that nurses need to be flexible,” said Hussain.
“So nurses are supposed to now, according to the Government of Quebec, be able to move anywhere and everywhere the government or the managers dictate. So if a nurse works or lives in Mirabel, their manager can at any point ask this person, please go work at the South Shore in a hospital in Longueuil and their nurse would not have a choice or say in the matter. And this is unacceptable.”