At a union council meeting on Friday, October 12, representatives of the union representing Government of Quebec professionals, SPGQ, approved a resolution to begin discussions with CUPE to explore the possibility of both organizations pooling their resources.
“Like CUPE, the SPGQ has expertise in representing professional employees in the public and para-public sectors. Given the bargaining context involving the Conseil du trésor where labour relations are becoming more complex, we are pleased to be able to review the pooling of our strengths to improve the working conditions of professional employees. We’re quite enthusiastic about getting down to work on this matter quite soon,” said CUPE Quebec President Patrick Gloutney.
This exploratory process comes at a time when Revenu Québec and the Commission de la function publique, CFP, are beginning new rounds of negotiations. Members’ expectations are high, and CUPE sees this forthcoming collaboration as a way to respond to them.
“We knew that the SPGQ was analyzing the possibility of acquiring some additional resources for some time, particularly a strike fund and specialized resources to support negotiations. Our team is excited at the idea of making CUPE’s machine and tools accessible to SPGQ members.
“CUPE represents members who perform similar jobs. We thus see the beginning of these discussions as a step forward toward achieving greater solidarity between the CFP, Crown Corporations and the CUPE Organizing Department,” explained Mathieu Dumont, Coordinator of the CUPE Organizing Department.
This is the third such initiative taken by CUPE in recent years. The first two were successful and resulted in the affiliation of the Fraternité des travailleurs et travailleuses du préhospitalier du Québec and the Syndicat des pompiers et pompières du Québec.
With more than 30,000 members, the SPGQ is one of the unions that represents the greatest number of professional employees in Quebec. It represents numerous specialists, particularly in the CFP, the Agence du revenu du Québec as well as in health care, education, cultural organizations and Crown Corporations.