Legault open to putting more money on table as 570,000 public workers strike

With unions representing nearly 570,000 public sector workers picketing across the province on Thursday, Quebec's premier says the province is willing to offer them more money.

François Legault said a new offer with a bigger salary increase was possible, but the unions need to make some sacrifices.

"We are open to putting more if, and only if, we get more flexibility," Legault said. "Everytime, we discuss too much about the money and not enough about the flexibility."

While Legault was speaking with reporters, public sector workers were protesting across the province and in Montreal, where demonstrations clogged up some major road arteries on Thursday.

Buses full of strikers arrived near Jarry Park on Thursday morning and education workers began to march down St-Laurent Boulevard to Mont-Royal Avenue before making their way toward the Georges-Étienne Cartier monument on Parc Avenue.

The crowd, mostly composed of striking teachers and education workers carrying signs, blowing horns and creating a din that filled the nearby area, extended down St-Laurent Boulevard for more than a kilometre. 

Workers with the common front of unions also protested in front of the National Assembly in Quebec City.

Who is striking today

A teachers union, the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), which represents some 66,000 educators in elementary and secondary schools, starts its indefinite general strike today.

At the same time, the province's largest nurses' union, the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), which is made up of 80,000 nurses, practical nurses, respiratory therapists and other health-care professionals, is also hitting the picket line. Those workers will be striking both today and tomorrow, though they say essential services will be maintained.

The coalition of public sector unions known as the common front, which boasts 420,000 health, social services and education workers, is also on strike today.

Included in the common front are four separate unions: the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS) and the fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ).

Another union has also joined the strike.

Seven hundred workers from 10 colleges, members from the Syndicat des professionnels du gouvernement du Québec (SPGQ), are striking both Thursday and Friday.

"It's going to be the biggest strike ever in Canada," said CSN vice-president François Enault.

WATCH | What it's like to be at the centre of a massive strike action: 

At the centre of Quebec's massive public sector strike

1 year ago

Duration 0:34

More than a half million Quebec workers, mostly from the education and health-care sectors, are off the job. Some are striking for an undetermined period, and many took to the streets Thursday.

What some teachers are saying

Josée Allard, a high school English teacher who marched with the FAE crowd down St-Laurent Boulevard, said she hopes the strike will pressure the government to improve working conditions for teachers — she doesn't want just a salary increase. 

Since she began teaching 12 years ago, she said, she has noticed how much more work she has to do on her own time to plan and help her students. The workload is too much for many young teachers, who don't stay in the profession for long, contributing to a shortage of educators. 

Allard held a sign and wore a red cape. Around her, teachers sporting shades of red to echo the FAE logo blew horns, waved noisemakers, chanted and sang. 

The noise travelled blocks away. 

"It would be nice if the government could hear us," Allard said. "It gives me hope to see so many people mobilized. It gives me hope for the kids."

Elene Karas, another high school English teacher, held a sign decrying large class sizes, which she said don't allow teachers like her to give students the individual support they need. 

"With 38 kids in the classroom and one teacher, you're not really teaching, you're just basically giving a conference and hoping some of them catch up and catch on," she said.

"That's what we're fighting for today, it's not only for our salaries. It's mostly for the students and the services that they don't have in school." 

Government focused on flexibility

Legault said Thursday the province needs to make gains as it pertains to scheduling teachers and health-care workers. He said "it makes no sense" that teachers choose their schedules in August, just days before the start of the school year.

He also said the government needs more wiggle room to assign health-care workers to night shifts or sending them to different regions and hospitals.

Legault said the ongoing negotiations represent a major turning point for the health and education sectors.

"We're not going to miss another opportunity with this negotiation to go get the flexibility that is needed to give more efficient services to Quebecers," the premier said.

Benoît Giguère, FAE vice-president of labour relations, told CBC the government hasn't made a serious effort to settle with unions and come to a quick resolution.

"We have to get a solution and agreement, and we have to do it soon for the better of the public school service … for the students but equally for the teachers that are working every day in those schools," he said.

WATCH | How Quebec parents are coping with closed schools: 

Half a million Quebec public workers are striking. This is how parents are coping

1 year ago

Duration 1:33

Parents have been scrambling to find childcare amid ongoing strikes in the province. Some found help from camps and others brought their children to work.