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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Quebec Nurses Strike: Exemplary Militancy, but No Breakthrough - Article﻿</title>﻿
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﻿<b﻿>﻿Quebec Nurses Strike: Exemplary Militancy, but No Breakthrough
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﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, September - October 1999﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿This article is based on French language articles by Marc Bonhomme, Ginette Lewis and especially Bernard Rioux's, August 3 "Premiare lecon de la grêve des infirmiares. Un tournant stratagique est essential dans lutte du secteur public." For coverage of the Quebec labour movement from a socialist perspective check the Gauche socialiste web site at http://www.lagauche.com/ - Harold Lavender﻿</font>﻿
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In July, 47,000 Quebec nurses took the lead in the struggle against health care cutbacks by staging a determined and militant strike in defence of their bargaining demands. The nurses bravely held out against the intimidation and fines of the Parti Quebecois government's Bill 160. The majority of public opinion rallied to the side of the nurses. But the strike has now ended for the moment without a decision.
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After weeks on strike, 75 per cent of nurses rejected the proposed cut rate deal recommended by their leadership, in which the PQ government maintained its ceiling on wage increases of 5 per cent over three years. However, this rebellious success was soon followed by a return to work.
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The nurses' union, the FIIQ (Federation des infirmiÄres et infirmiÄrs du Quebec), has since demanded the appointment of a mediator. The FIIQ has shifted to tactics of a wide variety of localized actions. A full strike could resume in November when the union is in a legal position to strike.
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But this raises many questions. The nurses were mobilized, unified, determined to go the wall and gaining public support, but they still did not achieve their demands. Will delay help their cause? Or is a strategic turn in the public sector struggle necessary to win victory? What is the balance sheet of their tactics?
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﻿<b﻿>﻿A just cause﻿</b>﻿
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The strength of the nurses' struggle lay in the justice of their demands and the willingness of the membership to defy the government to achieve them. Quebec nurses are the lowest paid in the Canadian state. They were seeking wages equivalent to the professional standards established in other provinces. Much of the wage gap results from cutbacks in health care spending initiated by the Bourassa government in 1992 and pursued by the PQ and Bouchard in the name of the zero deficit objective. Despite the fact that Quebec has the highest rate of unionization in the Canadian state, wage levels remain below average. This reflects a history of national oppression. Low wages in the government and the broader public sector - in which there is a high concentration of women - also reflect women's oppression. The nurses' struggle was a women's struggle for the right to work, for decent working conditions and job security. Nurses seek secure positions and do not wish to be considered as an on-call work force, elastic, flexible and adapted as needed. They wish adequate wage increases that reflect their skills. Nurses received support from many quarters. Doctors joined their picket lines. Many people worried about health cuts sympathised with the nurses. Women's groups supported the strike. The union federations, the CSN and CEQ and FTQ, sent solidarity messages and condemned the application of Bill 160. But in many cases, the solidarity was muted and the federations did not mobilize their members to build a general strike to help the nurses to break the 5 per cent ceiling. 
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﻿<b﻿>﻿Strategic problems﻿</b>﻿
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The leadership of the FIIQ pursued a sectoral strategy, bargaining alone rather than in a co-ordination with the rest of the public sector. Negotiations in the bulk of the public sector will take place this fall. However, the nurses' leadership believed it was possible to negotiate successfully with the Bouchard government, independently of other public sector unions. Saskatchewan nurses did win modest gains (14 per cent over three years) through an illegal strike earlier this year (see The Hot Spring of 99: Hospital Workers Confront the Neo-Liberal AgendaË in the July-Aug. issue of New Socialist). But the Bouchard government was far more determined to resist and was ready to accept the consequences of a fall in its popularity. The Quebec government is achieving its zero deficit objective on the backs of public sector workers and at the cost of health and public services. Public workers who have sacrificed now want their share. But business groups were adamant in demanding that Bouchard hold the line against nurses and the wider public sector at all costs. Zero deficit is to be followed by other neo-liberal measures to be competitive in the world of NAFTA and globalization. The cost of government must be reduced and taxes cut for business and the wealthy.
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This is a political agenda. The only way to defeat it is through a united struggle of all the women and men in the public sector. To win such a common front struggle, the public sector unions must articulate a social project different than that of Bouchard and neo-liberalism. The struggle of public sector workers for their demands raises the necessity for massive reinvestment of billions, not cutbacks in the public sector. The demand for wages and better working conditions would be linked to the improvement of public services. A unitary common front mobilization around this demand could win the kind of sustained massive public support necessary to force the PQ government to change course.
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In this period, the logic of the unions' bureaucratic apparatus will lead to fewer and fewer victories. Only struggles that base themselves on the needs and interests and unity of the majority are likely to succeed.
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