BY ANNETTE KOURI
MONTREAL - The Quebec government faces rising opposition in its efforts to impose major cuts in health and education. The six most important public sector unions have called for demonstrations and strike actions to fight the attacks, including a December 7 protest in Quebec City.
On November 13, the Parti Quebecois government demanded that public sector unions accept by December 6 a plan to cut their workweek and compensate the wage loss through cutting payments to their pension plan. This deadline was later changed to December 9. The government plan would require reopening union contracts in order to cut from the pensions. This is the latest proposal in government attempts to eliminate the provincial deficit in four years. The campaign to cut provincial spending in social services follows the federal government slashing of millions of dollars in transfer payments to the provinces.
On two days' notice the public sector unions mobilized about 15,000 of their members in a demonstration in Quebec City outside the ruling Parti Quebecois convention on November 23. "Enough's enough. Everything we've won - we've fought for!" said demonstration participant Pierrette Ouellet, vice president of her union grievance committee at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. "We have to get back to fighting. As for myself, I'm fighting for what my elders won and for my children. We have to rediscover solidarity rapidly."
Students also demonstrated. Yannick Paradis, a student from Marie-Victorin College, added that he was demonstrating "to encourage our teachers, who unanimously supported us." He was referring to the student strike that, over the course of several weeks in October and November, had included thousands of students at nearly 30 junior colleges across the province. They ended their strike after the government promised a freeze on tuition fees for students from the province during the current government's mandate. At the same time the government hiked tuition fees for out of province students.
On November 27, the six major unions representing the 400,000 public sector workers "declared war on Lucien Bouchard's government," as La Presse put it. The Quebec Teachers Federation (CEQ), Quebec Federation of Labor (FTQ), Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), Quebec Nurses Federation (FIIQ), Quebec Government Employees Union (SPGQ), and Quebec Union of Public Employees (SFPQ) issued a common statement announcing that local meetings of their members would be held to discuss future united actions.
Lorraine Page, president of the CEQ and spokesperson for the unions, said, "We will not sit down with the government to discuss its proposal.... That proposal is dead."
The unions' response has been a major setback for the Bouchard government. In March, labor officials had been part of an economic summit along with the government and employers where they accepted a four-year objective of reducing the deficit to zero. Traditionally the labor movement in Quebec has supported the Parti Quebecois. PQ is a bourgeois nationalist party that is seen by many working people as a defender of the national rights of the Quebecois, an oppressed nationality in Canada. The PQ demands sovereignty for Quebec, which puts it in conflict with Canada's rulers. But as the Bouchard government presses its attacks, it strikes at the gains that Quebecois have fought for and won in their decades-long fight against national oppression.
Debates at the November 22-24 Parti Quebecois convention reflected the problems facing the governing party. Bouchard faced several challenges to his leadership. Only 76 percent of the delegates voted for a motion expressing their confidence in the leader. The vote had been expected to be much higher. Bouchard responded by leaving the convention. The next day the party fell in line behind its leader as he demanded that the party's rules be changed to give less power to the members.
About 30 nurses confronted Bouchard the day after the convention when he arrived at a Parti Quebecois meeting in one of the towns adjoining Montreal. La Presse titled the incident "Lucien Bouchard Noisily Scolded in Pointe-aux- Trembles." Bouchard continued his hard line when he addressed the meeting. "We haven't got a choice. We must rectify the situation. Quebec is the most indebted province in Canada, we must tackle the deficit." On November 28, 3,000 public workers demonstrated in St. Jean, near Montreal in front of a fund-raising event for a private school that Bouchard attended.
Workers in the public sector have been holding union meetings to decide on the next steps. André Doucet, a laboratory technician in one of Montreal's largest hospitals, reported that the 360 members of the CSN local at the hospital who attended their union meeting voted to be part of coordinated 24-hour strike actions, as well as participate in the December 7 demonstration in Quebec City. The CSN local organizes 1,700 workers, the majority at the hospital. Doucet's own smaller local also voted to participate in the actions. Doucet said that in the discussion at his union meeting he pointed out that the actions reflected workers' willingness to fight. He gave his view that when the leaders of his union propose measures like raising taxes, as they have, it only plays into the government's hands. "These are our rights we are fighting for," he said.
Patricia O'Beirne contributed to this article. She and Annette Kouri are members of the United Steelworkers of America in Montreal.