Arriving in Dubai last night to participate in COP28, the FTQ president confirmed that she will continue to oversee negotiations via Teams. If there is an agreement in sight, Magali Picard promises to board the next flight to attend and finish the return journey with François Legault.
• Read also: In the midst of the strike, FTQ President Magali Picard will travel to Dubai
The head of the Quebec Federation of Labor caused a surprise Tuesday by announcing that she had flown to the United Arab Emirates amid negotiations to renew collective agreements for state employees.
In an interview with our parliamentary office, Magali Picard confirmed that she will return next Monday, well before the series of new Common Front strikes, scheduled to take place from 8 to 14 December.
Originally, her presence in Dubai was scheduled to last until December 9, but the president says she changed her plans when the decision was made to hold a new round of strikes.
“There was never any doubt that I would not be in Montreal when we have members on the streets as of December 8,” she explains.
- Listen to the interview with former CSQ President, Regan Barnett, in response to the FTQ’s trip to Dubai via QUB Radio :
On the difference at night
Despite the time difference, Majali Pekar confirms that she will follow the negotiations closely. “I won’t hide from you that I have Teams all week and I’ll do it at night, and then I’ll be at COP28 during the day,” she says.
It emphasizes that the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties is not a “vacation”.
He added: “The common front is the highest priority, but I am not the person sitting at the negotiating table. “We have our own people that we talk to every day,” the president says.
In the event of a meeting with Prime Minister François Legault to settle the negotiations, Magali Picard confirms that she will take the next flight back to Quebec. “If someone told me it was Friday, I would be there. We are going to change [le billet de retour]. There are flights every day, so I will be back.
“If it is a one-hour meeting with the Chairman of the Treasury Board, with the common front, we do it via Teams. But from the moment it becomes a meeting with the Prime Minister, I will definitely be there.”
Conference of the Parties 28
Meanwhile, Magali Picard realizes that her presence in Dubai risks becoming a government tool for criticism. “The government will use it, and I will confront it. It’s fair game, but at the same time I’m not on vacation, I’m working at COP 28 with a delegation.
FTQ has participated in this event every year since 2015.
This presence makes it possible to influence elected officials on site, particularly Ministers Pierre Fitzgibbon and Benoit Charette, in order to ensure a “just transition,” says Magali Picard.
“How often do major political announcements get made outside of Quebec and Canada, in places like this here, where every country wants to look good? We’re here to say: ‘Okay, but how can we do it without doing it at the expense of workers?'” she said. “.
