Nunavik health workers prepare to strike

More than 1,400 workers based out of Nunavik’s two major health centres, including Tulattavik in Kuujjuaq, will take part in a series of strike days starting Oct. 26. (FILE PHOTO)

Hundreds of health care and social service workers in Nunavik have voted to strike Oct. 26, one of a number of strike days planned to put pressure on the Quebec government during contract negotiations.

About 700 workers based out of the Inuulitsivik health centre in Puvirnituq, and another 750 from the Tulattavik health centre in Kuujjuaq, recently voted to take part in six days of strike action spread out over the next couple of months, the workers’ union, the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), said Oct. 21.

The upcoming strike days are part of a province-wide action following a series of failed contract negotiations and cutbacks to public services.

Like other public sector workers, including Nunavik’s teachers, the group is asking for salary increases of 4.5 per cent per year, over a three-year period.

In contrast, the Quebec government is offering a two-year salary freeze followed by a one per cent increase every year over three years.

Salary increases and northern premiums are key to staff retention and stability in Nunavik’s health centres, said Nicolas Chénard, a Nunavik-based CSN representative.

“This will inevitably require offering salary increases that can help people protect their purchasing power, which is far from being the case,” Chénard said in a release.

“In Nunavik’s case, in particular, we’re asking for an increase to the isolation and remoteness premium of 6.5 per cent per year, so that it could better fulfill its role,” he said.

“Meanwhile, we’re asking the government to continue paying the Far North premium, which it terminated earlier this year.”

It’s unclear how the strike days will impact on health care delivery in the region.

The CSN is also asking to have two communities, Kuujjuaraapik and Kuujjuaq, moved from zone three to four, a change in rank that would affect the amount of bonuses which workers receive.

The CSN Health and its Social Services Federation (FSSS–CSN) represent more than 2,500 health and social services workers in northern Quebec.