Ungava health workers demonstrate for better pay

MONTREAL — Unionized health-care workers at Kuujjuaq’s Tulattavik Health Centre are still clamoring for the Quebec government to improve their working conditions and benefits.

More than 300 workers in communities along Ungava Bay belong to a union affiliated with La Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), Quebec’s health and social services union.

On Monday they held a 24-hour strike.

The actual time on strike didn’t amount to much — a mere 45 minutes — because these workers have to be on the job 90 per cent of the time simply to maintain essential services.

But in Kuujjuaq they put this limited time to use.

Brandishing placards and wearing blue tee-shirts with the union logo “Our work counts,” they held an informal sit-in in front of the office of the Tulattavik Health Centre’s executive director, Minnie Grey, who was meeting with a provincial health department official.

When the visitor from Quebec City surfaced, protesting workers peppered him with questions.

“He was a bit surprised. It’s not usual to see Inuit demonstrating for what they want in labour relations,” said Robert Deschambault, a union staff representative.

Protesters asked the official to bring Quebec’s health minister, Pauline Marois, a copy of a resolution passed by the Tulattivik Health Centre’s board in support of their unmet demands.

Their union’s new contract, due to be finalized shortly, does give the health-care workers a nine per cent pay raise over the next four years.

And many part-time jobs will be transformed into full-time, permanent positions with increased benefits.

But the FSSS union still wants the same kinds of bonuses earned by nurses and doctors who work in Nunavik.

Quebec’s Treasury Board announced increased benefits and bonuses for nurses in Nunavik last spring. Nurses working in remote regions now receive an annual relocation bonus of $14, 000 to $17,000, depending on the isolation of their post, while outpost nurses are eligible for an additional amount of $7,000.

The union also wants workers to receive some financial breaks to offset losses due to the taxation of existing benefits such as housing and cargo. Since these benefits began to be taxed in 1992, the union has been trying to negotiate some remedial measures.

The union has argued that it’s becoming increasingly hard to find and keep qualified people to work in health and social services. As a result of this staff shortage, many can’t go on vacation when they want to, because there’s no one to take over the essential services they provide.