Héma Québec employees threaten unlimited strike

Meeting at a general meeting in Montreal Monday morning, the unions representing laboratory technicians, laboratory technical assistants, and other Héma-québec workers voted 99 per cent in favour of an unlimited general strike mandate to be used when deemed appropriate.

Salary talks have been deadlocked since 2016 and union spokesperson Sophie Larouche said, "The Treasury Board must immediately provide clear pathways to unblock discussions at the bargaining table. We know that the employer has asked the Conseil du trésor to set up a unique salary structure for all Héma-québec unions. To start negotiating, the Treasury Board should first allow management to submit their offer."

“The government settled with the doctors and several other groups and it is unacceptable that there is no money for Héma-québec, which is subject to essential services. It's been three years that employees have been working conscientiously without any increase in salary," Larouche said. "The negotiation of normative clauses is practically over for the three unions, which represent around 350 people," the union spokesperson added.. "We have put some pressure on so far, but we are cranking it up a gear. Our patience has reached its limits."

Héma-québec employees across Quebec are divided into eight unions, affiliated with two larger federations; the CSN, made up of nearly 2,000 unions and more than 300,000 workers, mainly in Quebec, and the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), the largest union in the health and social services sector and in child care, which has more than 110,000 members in the public and private sectors.