Beginning next week, a common front of Quebec’s public sector unions will consult their 420,000 members on voting for a strike mandate that would include an unlimited general walkout.

A press conference was held Sunday morning by the FEESP-CSN School Sector negotiating committee highlighting the difficulties for support staff for the upcoming school year.

The base salary of elected representatives will rise from $101,561 to $131,766. All MNAs with additional duties (ministers, leaders, opposition leaders) will receive an even greater increase.

Mobilization stepped up a notch in the public sector, as activists from the inter-union common front and the FIQ demonstrated Thursday in Quebec City and Montreal to mark the expiry of their collective agreements.

Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel is now presenting her “discussion forums” in the public sector as real “negotiating tables” with the unions.

Education Minister Bernard Drainville has outlined a seven-point plan for improving Quebec’s education system, including the return of a fast-track diploma system to boost the number of legally qualified teachers.

Stretched beyond thin, public services are being buffeted by an unprecedented labour shortage, in addition to record inflation. And faced with this crisis, all the Legault government can think to do is make public sector workers poorer.

Quebec government public sector employees make 12 per cent less than other workers in similar jobs.

The common front of Quebec public sector unions is demanding wage increases above inflation, from two to four per cent over three years, in addition to the equivalent of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).