By Deborah Murray
MONTREAL -- There were more signs last week that the long truce is over between Quebec unions and the governing Parti Québécois (PQ).
On September 25, Bouchard and the PQ were met by several hundred protesters throughout the day at their National Council meeting in Drummondville. Nurses, ordered back to work in July, showed up to protest. Employment Quebec workers who just received layoff notices were there, as well as many other public sector workers.
There is turmoil everywhere in the public sector, as workers battle to end years of cutbacks and wage freezes.
High school teachers are continuing their work-to-rule campaign refusing to do extra-curricular activities.
In solidarity, high school students have been turning spontaneous walk-outs into organized action.
Over 1,000 students from four east-end high schools walked out on strike on September 23.
In a desperate measure to control and stifle the student strikes, riot police moved in and arrested 275 of the students when they reached Chomedey de Maisonneuve High school. Students arrested were between the ages of the 13 and 15.
The day before, over 400 students marched out of school in the north of the city. Thirty-six students were arrested in this demonstration in which angry students threw garbage and rocks at the police (see story, page 11).
Premier Lucien Bouchard is calling on teachers to get the students back to school. But students vow to continue their demonstrations until extracurricular activities are restored. They expect Bouchard to address the demands of their teachers.
Union representatives say the real blame lies with the PQ for letting contract negotiation talks drag on for over 15 months.
Meanwhile, results from the teachers' strike votes from across Quebec indicate an overwhelming support for the general strike called by the Common Front of Quebec's public sector unions scheduled to begin on November 18.
However, they rejected the other part of the Common Front's plan for three days of rotating strikes originally scheduled to begin the week of October 25.
While many union members said they didn't see the sense of the three-day strikes if a general strike was on the table, this split by the teachers' unions from the Common Front original plan of action weakens the entire movement.
The risk is that conservative sections of the teachers' union leadership will use the backing out from rotating strikes as a preliminary step to backing out of strike action altogether.
To prevent a split in the Common Front, spokespeople from the Common Front committee announced a change from the three-day rotating strikes to a one-day strike to be held sometime in that same week.
Regardless of the differences in strategies amongst the public sector in the lead up to the general strike, all agree to keep up the pressure on the PQ.
One thing is clear, Bouchard can expect to be on the receiving end of anger and mounting pressure from public sector workers and their supporters in the coming weeks.
This struggle deserves the solidarity of every worker and student in the rest of Canada.
We have been up against the same assault on services and jobs in every province.
If messages of support and financial contributions pour in to the Quebec Common Front from across the country, it will send a message that the real ally of Quebec workers is not the PQ, but workers, students and the poor in the rest of the country.