Midwives and young families picket
Groups of midwives and parent supporters gathered in three different locations across the province on Monday to demand better working conditions after a three year impasse on contract negotiations. Assembled in front of the offices of Premier Philippe Couillard in Montreal, Heath Minister Gaétan Barrette in Brossard, and Families Minister Luc Fortin in Sherbrooke, the groups took an hour in the middle of the day to make their voices heard despite a wintery chill in the air.
“We have been without a contract since 2015,” said Veronique Cloutier, the Sherbrooke spokesperson for the midwives, calling that span “three years of nothing from the government.”
Cloutier explained that Quebec’s midwives operate on a system where they are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but are currently paid the equivalent of less than two dollars an hour for that time.
“We won that in our last negotiation, and now they want to cut $1,700 per year from that on-call time,” the midwife said. “Our model is based on that on call time,” she added, explaining the point of the system is to ensure that a pregnant mother’s primary caregiver is always available to her, rather than a string of relative or complete strangers. “Continuity of care is the basis of our model and women and families are asking for this model.“
Cloutier said that she and her colleagues feel like the government is not taking them seriously despite there being demand and proven benefits for the population and the healthcare system from having midwives in place.
“We are only 2000 in the province of Quebec,” the spokesperson said, suggesting that the Province simply does not see them as a large enough group to warrant legitimate negotiation. “They already have other models in place; we offer another model for families who want something else.”