Changes in working conditions

The health network has greatly evolved over time. What has changed in our working conditions? What challenges have we faced? Nothing beats a timeline for providing an overview of the situation*.

There has been good and bad, for sure! It is up to us to learn from the past in order to demand better for the future.

*Salaries and workweeks are different from one job title to another and are not uniform for the periods indicated. The amounts are approximate and aim to provide an order of magnitude based on the basic salary in the last echelon, when data is available. The nurse job title was used to identify the salary of a nurse.

0-1927

Charity and vocation

Annual salary: $0 to $300 (care work is mainly voluntary)
70-hour workweek
Regular workday of 13 hours
Many tasks not related to care (fill the kerosene lamps, wash the windows, bring buckets of coal to ensure an even temperature in the rooms)

“Caring for the sick is a vocation! It has to be a calling! […] To devote yourself day and night, you have to sacrifice your strength, sometimes your health”. – Religieuse de l’École des garde-malades de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, 1901

1928-1962

Emergence of health unions

Annual salary: $2,600 for nurses (end of volunteering, except for students)
Workweek of 40 hours (in split shifts, which required an almost continuous presence at the hospital)
Dramatic situation of nursing unemployment
Emergence of new personnel categories (social work, physio, occ therapy, dietitian, psychologist). Who used to do all that before?

The first strike in public services, organized by the Alliance des infirmières de Montréal (AIM) in 1957, at the hôpital Sacré-Cœur de Hull, and the threat of a strike at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal led to massive salary increases and a first regional collective agreement.

1963-1976

Start of the public network and professionalization

Annual salary: $8,600 for nurses | $6,600 for licensed practical nurses | $8,400 for respiratory therapists
37.50-hour workweek
About 70% of employees are part time or availability
Significant increase in number of patients
Beginning of mandatory overtime

The one-month illegal strike, organized by AIM in 1963, at the Hôpital Sainte-Justine, led to advances linked to workload by obtaining the implementation of a committee on care, a union action tool still relevant today!

1977 – 1994

Start of budget cuts

Annual salary: $35,000 for nurses | $17,000 for licensed practical nurses | $21,000 for respiratory therapists
In 1983, the government decided to cut salaries by 20% for 3 months to save money
36.25-hour workweek
Job cuts and layoffs
Work intensified
Declining interest in the profession

These difficult times prompted healthcare professional unions to join forces, leading to the creation of the Fédération des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (FIIQ), our predecessor!.

Our illegal strikes in 1989 and 1999 put pressure on the government to convert replacement hours into positions. This resulted in the creation of 2,000 positions, representing approximately 4 million additional work hours per year.

1995 – 2003

Ambulatory shift

Annual salary: $45,000 for nurses | $35,000 for licensed practical nurses | $43,000 for respiratory therapists | $47,000 for clinical perfusionists
Increase in the number of managers
Mass retirement of 4,000 nurses

It was from this period onwards that the labour shortage became a pretext for introducing the private sector in healthcare, thereby discrediting public services.

The government proposed a reduction in the workweek to 32 hours for civil servants and wanted to cut pension plans in order to save money. The FIQ blocked Autoroute 15 and a 24-hour strike vote was organized by the inter-union committee to counter this affront, which ignored the number of hours actually worked.

2004 – 2025

Reforms and centralization

Annual salary: $90,000 for nurses | $75,000 for licensed practical nurses | $85,000 for respiratory therapists | $113,000 for clinical perfusionists
37.50 to 40-hour workweek
Management by MOT, contingency and non-replacement plans
Significant job cuts
Beginning of waiting lists for CHSLDs which overloaded hospitals
Defunding of SADs and CLSCs

We warmly thank Couillard, Barrette and Dubé for this legacy!

In 2023, the FIQ organized the first legal strike in the context of essential services, a mobilization which helped to curb the significant cutbacks demanded by the government.