French Canadian Feminists Demand Government Action

Article source: "Plusieurs mobilisations à Québec pour la Journée internationale des femmes", Magalie Masson, Radio Canada, 08/03/2023.

This year, International Women’s Day is happening against the backdrop of Canadian public sector pay negotiations.

In front of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, about a hundred women members of the French Canadian federation of trade unions, Front Commun were demanding better work conditions at a time when collective bargaining agreements in education, health and social services are soon to expire.

They believe that the national labour negotiations are also a feminist issue.

Front Commun comprises the CSN (confederation of Canadian trade unions), the CSQ (Quebec labour congress), the FTQ (Quebec federation of labour) and the APTS (Quebec’s main health service union). According to the CSN’s first vice-president François Énault, 78% of its members are women.

“Our female workers are underpaid compared to a number of other sectors. There is a 12% wage gap,” he says.

Among other things, Front Commun is demanding protection against inflation and pay rises to make up for salary inequalities.

“We can’t keep lowering taxes at the expense of women who struggle to keep our social  services working.” Anne Dionne, CSQ second vice-president.

The CSN claims that the government has offered them a 9% pay rise even though accumulated inflation is predicted to reach 16.6% over the next five years. The group of unions is also complaining about discussions taking too much time.

“We should at least be told what the government wants. We need to speed things up. We don’t want this to drag on,” says the APTS’s first vice-president Josée Fréchette.

“There is still a lot that needs to be done”

At noon today, hundreds of women also walked the streets of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste neighbourhood in Quebec City to underline the importance of past feminist struggles and reassert present ones.

“Promoting the importance of intersectionality, pushing the government to acknowledge systemic racism, improving the accessibility of health services… There is still a lot that needs to be done,” explains  Alice Marcoux, one of the demonstration’s coordinators, who is involved with the Femmes d’aujourd’hui (“Today’s Women”) centre.

The event was organised by a group of local feminist associations. Several disabled women and an Iranian woman were given the opportunity to talk about their experiences.

“We demand the same rights as non-disabled women. We want medical exam rooms to be accessible,” said Andréanne Thibeau. “If a woman suffering domestic violence needs to leave her home for her own safety, she will often be unable to do so because there is no accessible means of transport,” Véronique Denis pointed out.

For International Women’s Day, the CNESST (Quebec’s workplace equality, and health and safety authority) has also launched an awareness campaign to promote the concept of pay equity. It will be carried by various media platforms until 26 March.

Based on interviews by Colin Côté-Paulette and Louis-Philippe Arsenault

Translated by Sophie Garnier and Gauthier Sénécal.

Editing by Sam Trainor.