2.6% increase: welcome news!

This week, on April 1, the 2.6% pay raise set out in the provincial collective agreement (art. 9.12) for the period from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 comes into effect.

This is good news, particularly given the current context. You can use the salary calculator on our website to find out what the impact of the increase will be for your job title.

Click and calculate

Estates General on the Union Movement: Unions build the future

On March 31, Québec’s nine major unions - including the APTS - officially launched the Estates General on the Union Movement, a major consultation and reflection exercise, with the theme of “Unions build the future.”

The Estates General will be a chance to engage with activists, workers, and experts from the world of work and civil society for an up-to-date picture of the Québec union movement and to identify possible solutions to revitalize it.

Consultations will get underway in the coming weeks, and the exercise will end in early 2027 with the presentation of a global action plan.

Find out more (in French)

Provincial budget: a major shortfall!

“There’s a shortfall of at least $1.25 billion to meet growing public needs. Santé Québec will have to keep moving forward with one hand tied behind its back, forced to make cuts.”

This was APTS president Robert Comeau’s reaction to the 2025-2026 provincial budget, tabled on March 25, as he noted the significant gap between the needs of Quebecers and the amount allocated to health and social services.

Budget cuts, insufficient funding for essential services and more: austerity is back, and it looks like it’s here to stay. Get the full analysis in the latest edition of the APTS Alert newsletter.

Read the press release

Mobilizing for a strong, accessible public system!

This week, dozens of organizations that are members of the Coalition solidarité santé – including the APTS – will demonstrate against the false promises of the Dubé reform.

Two years after Bill 15, access to care is still a nightmare, centralization is at new heights and the private system is eating away at our public resources. Has the government forgotten that health care is a right, not merchandise?

There will be activities in every region of Québec. Contact your local team to join the movement or see the Facebook page for the week’s events for more details.

A bill that needs to be withdrawn

The APTS got straight to the point when it submitted its brief (in French) to a parliamentary committee on March 20, demanding that the labour minister withdraw Bill 89.

It’s an “unjustified” attack on the right to strike, the APTS president said, “a direct threat to the balance of power in labour relations … [that] could tip the scales toward employers.”

“The government is infringing everyone’s rights to solve a problem that is in reality an exception,” he argued, inviting Jean Boulet to go back to the drawing board and hold real discussions with labour organizations.

Read the press release

Consider reporting

Did you know that work overload is a psychosocial risk to be managed alongside other occupational health and safety risks?

Filing an accident or incident report might not be your first thought when facing an excessive workload. But work overloads can have serious physical or psychological consequences.

There are a number of advantages to reporting. Find out about them in the APTS’s 11th factsheet published as part of its information campaign on workload. Be sure to read it!

Read the factsheet

Major meeting of the MI-RO-ME-NM* provincial working group

The members of the working group (technologists and local executive representatives), labour relations counsellors and provincial representatives met on March 14.

Together, they defined the parameters of a future campaign promoting MI-RO-ME-NM, outlined possible solutions and identified priorities for action in three areas:

1. improve the recognition and attraction of these professions in the system;
    
2. mobilize members and make decision makers aware of problems with the organization of work (schedules, job structures, waiting list management, urgent priorities);
    
3. pressure employer representatives for the uniform payment of premiums, in compliance with national provisions.

Stay tuned.

* Medical imaging, radiation oncologist, medical electrophysiology, nuclear medicine

Interference in union activities: the MUHC sanctioned again

Guilty of a similar infraction in August 2023, the MUHC was just sanctioned again by the administrative labour tribunal (Tribunal administratif du travail) for interference in the APTS’s union activities.

The MUHC must pay out $1,000 for inconvenience and $9,000 in punitive damages. The bill came to $10,000 for having ignored - for the second time - the APTS’s monopoly on representation by agreeing, without its knowledge, to lend out the services of a professional to the MSSS.*

Jurisprudence has been confirmed yet again: employers can’t do this without the involvement of the union, the sole representative for working conditions.

* Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux 

Two of our social workers featured in La Presse

The APTS has joined forces with the OTSTCFQ* to sponsor an awareness campaign in La Presse, in the wake of Social Workers’ Week, which ended March 29.

La Presse published a special feature on the work of these professionals. It conducted interviews with two of our social work members: Josée Tousignant (home care) and Mélanie Boutin (prevention of psychosocial risks in the workplace).

We hope you’ll read these two articles that shed light on the work of all our social work members.

* Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec

A record, some doubts and heels dug in

The results of the last quiz reached a new high: 81%! It turns out records are made to be broken. Way to go!

But quiz enthusiasts were divided on the question of whether the labour minister will walk back Bill 89: 57% say no, 43% say yes.

Judging from Jean Boulet’s fierce defense of his bill, particularly to unions (including the APTS), it’s hard to imagine he’ll back down.

Take the latest quiz