Nunavik nurses stay at their posts as strike continues

MONTREAL — Nurses in Nunavik won’t join 47,000 of their colleagues in southern Quebec in an unprecedented, illegal general strike.

“They can’t strike because they are already at a minimum level of providing essential services,” Serge Auclair, director of nursing services, transportation and patient services for Puvirnituq’s Inuulitsivik Health Centre, said.

Members of the Quebec Federation of Nurses walked off the job last weekend after union leaders broke off contract negotiations with the government.

The union is demanding that more permanent jobs for nurses be created, and that workloads for current employees be lightened. They also want more money.

Auclair said that Nunavik nurses will express solidarity with their striking colleagues, instead, by wearing T-shirts and jeans to work.

Waiting list grows

The labour problems are causing turmoil in the health sector, and the shortage of nurses has prompted the Quebec Hospital Association to cancel all elective surgery across the province.

The strike has left 85 patients and escorts from Nunavik waiting in boarding homes for treatment at Montreal area hospitals.

“We have cancelled most of our elective arrivals,” said a staffer at Nunavik’s Northern Module in Montreal. “It [the strike] has an impact on everyone using the health care system in Montreal. It’s harder on the patients because they have to understand what’s happening politically in southern Quebec.”

The Northern Module employs four nurses, but none will join the strike because 3.6 nurses are required to maintain its essential service levels

Quebec’s Premier Lucien Bouchard has said that his government’s top offer will remain a five per cent increase in salary.

Striking nurses say that the Parti-Québécois government’s unwillingness to meet nurses’ demands show the government is scrimping on health services to balance the budget.