At a time when Minister Dubé is distributing additional service hours to three regions, the Fraternité des travailleurs et travailleuses du préhospitalier du Québec, CUPE 7300, FTPQ-CUPE, salutes the investment in ambulance coverage but would also like to remind him that he must honour his commitment and finance the wage increase called for in the collective agreement of paramedics, who are members of FTPQ-CUPE.
Paramedics are still waiting for the 6% wage hike agreed to by their private employers, whose activities are fully subsidized by the Quebec government. The employers are laying the blame with the Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, which is reportedly late in unfreezing the funds that would go toward this wage increase that is retroactive to April 1, 2023.
“We’re happy to see that eight hours have been added to coverage in the Beloeil-Boucherville sector, but we reiterate that this announcement falls far short of what is needed in the field. The paramedics are the ones picking up the slack for the deficient governance of the public-private partnership in the management of emergency pre-hospital care in Quebec. We bargained in good faith, and we expect all of the parties to honour the collective agreement they signed. We’re disappointed in the companies and the elected officials,” declared Benoit Cowell, president of the FTPQ-CUPE