The 420,000 Quebec public sector workers, who are members of the “common front” of unions, are commencing a weeklong strike on Dec. 8. This group of workers includes teachers, education support staff, and lab technicians. Their decision to strike comes after they rejected the government’s proposed contract offer, which includes a 12.7 percent salary increase over five years. This temporary strike is the third conducted by the common front since November, and the unions have stated that it will be the last before they initiate an unlimited strike.
In addition to the common front’s strike, around 66,000 teachers from a different union have been on strike since Nov. 23, while 80,000 nurses and other health-care workers are scheduled to begin a four-day strike on Dec. 11. These strikes have occurred as a response to the Quebec Premier François Legault’s recent contract offer, in which he expressed a willingness to provide the workers with more money, but also requested concessions on management issues from the unions, such as the transfer of nurses between health facilities.