Front Commun Intersyndical

Amidst climbing food, housing and transportation costs, crumbling public healthcare and education infrastructure, increasing job precariousness and decreasing wages, a runaway climate disaster and a mental health crisis, you have to ask; where is our government?

The Legault Government: Failing Quebecers

Sitting snugly in the pockets of the corporations is where. Corporate profits in Canada hit an all-time high at the end of 2022, fully 20% of GDP, while more Quebeckers than ever lined up at food banks. In Quebec, the Legault government is implementing a health care privatization strategy while nurses and other healthcare workers flee the public system, leaving nearly one million citizens without access to primary medical care. Quebec is lacking more than 1,000 public school teachers, but the government is still not making wage offers attractive enough to keep education workers from fleeing to the private sector, let alone deal with the more than 30,000 families who cannot find a daycare.

Legault’s play is easy to read; underfund public services so they don’t work properly and wait for the private sector to take up the demand created by the failing system. When voters complain, blame the unions and lower expectations until there’s no resistance.

Reforming of the Front Commun Intersyndical

The enormity of the problem calls for massive mobilization, and this is why the Front Commun Intersyndical has been reformed.

The Front Commun Intersyndical was originally formed in 1972 to generate union solidarity in public sector bargaining with the Bourassa government. The Front Commun led the Quebec general strike of 1972, the biggest strike action in Canadian history, vastly improving conditions for public sector workers in the province.

Fast forward to 2023, and the Front Commun has been reformed between the CSN, FTQ, CSQ, and APTS in the lead up to public sector negotiations in April. The demands are straightforward; real wage increases, improved working conditions, expanded benefits and dignity in retirement. Of course, these won’t just be handed over by the provincial government. To make François Legault rethink his plans to privatize public services and enrich himself and his cronies, it will take millions of workers threatening to shut down Quebec.

Soon pamphlets about the campaign will be appearing in CUPW locals across Quebec. Read about the campaign and sign on. If there is a planning meeting or action in your area, be sure to attend. We need to stand in solidarity with healthcare and education workers, because you and I will be next. By connecting across struggles, we can start resisting the agenda of Legault and his corporate buddies.

In Solidarity,