Workers launch three-day strike at Quebec public health institute

Workforce from Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) started a 3-day strike on Monday morning, with demonstrations in Montreal and Quebec.

Pickets have been established up in entrance of INSPQ offices on Wolfe Ave. in the provincial funds, and a demonstration took put from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the institute’s Montreal business on Crémazie Blvd. E. The walkout bundled scientific advisers, details officers, pc analysts and nursing advisers, all of whom are customers of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ).

Staff selected to strike in front of the National Assembly to be read not only by the INSPQ, but also by ministers and deputies, mentioned Étienne Pigeon, president of the Syndicat des professionnels de la santé publique du Québec.

“I invite final decision-makers, men and women from opposition events to aid us if they want to, to attempt to advance our cause,” Pigeon mentioned. “It is by no implies our intention that the labour dispute continue. But the individuals — the INSPQ industry experts — have had adequate. We were being superior little ones during the pandemic. Now is the time to be read and to get the recognition to which we are entitled.”

The personnel have been without a deal due to the fact March 31, 2020. Salaries are the principal concern. The union suggests its users are earning 15 for each cent much less than their colleagues at the provincially funded Institut nationwide d’excellence en santé et en companies sociaux.

The negotiations have not broken down periods will choose place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Pigeon claimed.

Mainly because the walkout is using place in the health-care sector, crucial products and services will be taken care of.

“We’re chatting about 10 to 15 people today who have been identified who have jobs that could be a small a lot more sensitive in these types of circumstances,” Pigeon said.

Their colleagues from the Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec, also associates of a CSQ union, have presently given themselves a strike mandate. However, they have not but exercised it, not like staff of the INSPQ.

Two hours following demonstrating in entrance of the Nationwide Assembly, strikers headed to the places of work of the Treasury Board.

Invited to remark, the Treasury Board claimed “as in the scenario of other corporations outdoors the community support,” it “gave the INSPQ a negotiation mandate to let it to negotiate honest agreements with all its personnel,” said spokesperson Anne-Hélène Couturier.

The INSPQ succeeded in reaching an agreement in principle with a further union, the Alliance du staff professionnel et technique de la santé et des solutions sociaux (APTS), past June.

“It is hoped that it will do the same with the other unions that symbolize its staff, within a realistic timeframe,” Couturier extra. “Although the Secretariat of the Treasury Board is not present at the negotiation table, the progress of the discussions is staying followed extremely carefully on our facet.”