On September 23, 2023, over one hundred thousand unionized workers, along with their friends and families, descended on the downtown core of Montreal. Under the pastel green banner of the Common Front, workers from the health and education sectors arrived from across the province in school buses, trains, and even by plane to express their discontent with the conservative provincial government of François Legault. The premier of Quebec made an appearance as a giant inflatable puppet, with money taped to his hands and coming out of his ears. The slogan of the Common Front (Front Commun), sums up neatly that the labor movement in Quebec is fighting not just for its members but for everyone: nous, d’une seule voix — we, with one voice.

While negotiations for new collective agreements have stalled across the entire public sector, the provincial legislature recently adjusted its own salaries for inflation and gave its members a 30 percent raise on top of that. College teachers, in comparison, are not asking for much. They too want to see their salaries adjusted for inflation and are demanding an additional pay raise of 9 percent over three years. The government has refused any indexing measures and is instead offering a 9 percent increase over five years. Given inflation predictions, the Common Front argues, this “offer” amounts to a 7 percent pay cut in real terms.

But this is not the only issue that the provincial government and the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ, the National Federation of Quebec Teachers), the public college teachers’ union, do not see eye to eye on. In addition to imposing cuts, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government is threatening to fundamentally transform the public college system, known as the Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP), a point of pride for many Quebecers.