Action by the Common Front at the Head Office of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, on October 24, 2023 in Montreal. Photo FTQ
The Common Front reached a tentative agreement at the main table to renew the public sector collective agreements following an 11-day strike and many weeks of intensive work at the bargaining table.
The Common Front has always preferred to present the contents of its tentative agreement to members first, however, given an environment where information already being shared informally, it has shared some highlights of the current tentative agreement. Members will be receiving a complete package of information on negotiations, which will describe the proposal in its entirety sometime around January 7.
On the issue of wages, the Common Front obtained increases totalling 17.4% over five years accompanied by a clause that protects purchasing power over each of the last three years of the collective agreement along with numerous improvements to working conditions.
Significant gains were made with respect to group insurance, vacations and items pertaining to parental rights, the attraction and retention of specialized personnel, particularly psychologists. A few improvements were made to the pension plan, thereby avoiding major setbacks. This is over and above the several enhancements obtained in sectorial agreements.
Officials of the CSN, CSQ, FTQ and the APTS are currently in the process of confirming whether the content of the proposed agreements obtained at the main table and at each of the sectorial tables indeed constitute an overall tentative agreement.
If so, it will be up to members of the Common Front vote on the agreement at a general membership meeting to be held in January. This round of negotiations will be officially completed once the working conditions and wage conditions have been deemed satisfactory by the 420,000 workers who have taken part in this historic Common Front.