Quebec's 3,400 paramedics have given their union a strike mandate, though so far the union has not announced any walkout plans.
The paramedics, who include Urgences-Sante workers from Montreal and Laval, are affiliated with the CSN union.
They're pushing for a pay increase and want their top salary to be hiked to $30.40 an hour from the current level of $23.85.
The union ist pressing the Liberal government to make good on a 2006 promise to give a pay raise to the paramedics by July 1 of this year.
"We're running out of time," CSN negotiator Jeff Begley said in a statement.
"The ball has been in the government's court for a long time."
The paramedics held the provincewide strike vote over the past month and 98 per cent of them agreed to the give the union a general, unlimited strike mandate.
