MONTREAL – Quebec paramedics are ramping up pressure tactics and threatening a general unlimited strike as of Christmas Eve unless negotiations resume with the provincial government.
But as 2,500 paramedics – 800 in the Montreal and Laval area – prepare for strike action, union leaders promise no service interruptions to patients.
The union has already approved a list of essential services that will be maintained, Réjean Leclerc, a member of Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) negotiating team, said during a news conference Tuesday.
The Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN) union met with Quebec’s essential services council after 71 per cent of paramedics rejected a tentative deal last July, giving the union a mandate to strike.
The impact of a strike would be felt at the administrative level, Leclerc said, as paramedics stage public awareness campaigns.
Meanwhile, paramedics are already applying administrative pressure tactics, such as refusing to take students aboard ambulances for training purposes, or refusing to take patient escorts (family members, friends) along during the patients’ ride to hospitals.
Workers are using green ink to write their reports, which makes scanning difficult.
The paramedic’s previous contract expired in March 2010.
The main areas of dispute are over the pension plans and pay equity within its ranks for 16 pay levels that the union would like to see reduced.
“We do the same work on the road,” said union representative and paramedic Yvon Bonesso. “Same work, same pay.”
Montrealers might even notice a slight improvement in service, with more employees on the road as paramedics adopt a work-to-rule attitude and staff shifts at 100 per cent, Bonesso said. “It’s going to cost the employer more.”
Paramedics earn between $17 and $30 an hour, depending on training and experience.
Quebec Health Minister Réjean Hébert said he is ready to resume negotiations but given limited resources, the margin to manoeuvre is limited.
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