Agreement in principle for teachers in the Cree School Board - Services for
students with special needs the focus

QUÉBEC, Nov. 23 /CNW Telbec/ - The Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE-CSQ) and the Association of Employees of Northern Québec (AENQ-CSQ) are proud to announce the achievement of an agreement in principle between teaching personnel of the Cree School Board and the employer. This agreement was approved by over 90% of the teachers concerned in general meetings held during November.

"The product of exceptional determination and good will, this agreement will improve the lives of all in schools of the Cree Territory, both teachers and students. Improving the working conditions of teachers will have a direct impact on the learning situation for students, who will benefit from greater support in a number of ways. The entire community has emerged a winner," announced Ms Manon Bernard, the President of the FSE.

"We are very happy that this agreement, accepted by both parties, could be achieved in less than a year from the beginning of negotiations. While work remains to be done, this agreement, covering sectoral, intersectoral and local matters, will clearly improve the working conditions for teachers in the Cree School Board as well as the services provided to students in difficulty. We hope that this same good faith will inspire the employer to settle with support personnel. We are also hoping that this agreement will have a positive influence on the negotiations between teaching personnel of the Kativik School Board and their employer, whose positions remain far apart," concluded the President of AENQ-CSQ, Mr Patrick D'Astous.

The main elements of this agreement are:

• an important catch-up in the dossier of students with difficulties, specifically through the creation, at the level of the School Board, of a parity committee mandated to deal exclusively with students with difficulties, officially introducing the involvement of all those involved in the educational process;
• taking into account the number of students with difficulties when forming classes;
• a provision clarifying the question of the movement of personnel within the Territory, encouraging greater retention;
• Improvement in the provisions governing the attribution and maintenance of housing, along with the institution of guidelines and procedures for resolving disputes in this dossier.

Profiles of the organisations

The FSE-CSQ represents some 60,000 teachers in school boards across Québec, working in all sectors: pre-school, elementary, secondary, vocational training and adult education..

AENQ includes teachers and support personnel of the Cree and Kativik school boards as well as CPE childcare workers in Eeyou Istchee. It has 1,400 members working in 9 Cree communities and the 14 Inuit communities of Nunavik. It is affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ) and is represented within the Fédération des syndicats de l'enseignement (FSE).

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