One-day strike for 400 CPE daycares on Jan. 23

Workers in 400 early childhood centres (CPEs) will hold a one-day strike next week, on Jan. 23.

There are more than 13,000 workers who are members of unions with the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS), affiliated with the CSN.

This will be their first day of strike action in their five-day mandate.

Negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements resumed Monday with the Quebec government, after the holiday pause, but they did not produce the expected result – the union federation announced.

The main points of contention are wages, workload and support for children with special needs.

Quebec, for its part, wants to obtain more flexibility in the organization of work, in order to improve services to citizens they say.

The negotiations are taking place in a context of labour shortages in daycare services, while Quebec wants to open thousands of places to meet demand.

Quebec has already reached an agreement with other union organizations representing workers in CPEs, including the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance (FIPEQ), affiliated with the CSQ, and two of the major unions affiliated with the FTQ, namely the Syndicat québécois des employées de service and the Syndicat des métallos. However, their members have not yet spoken out on their agreement in principle, since it was reached just before Christmas.

-This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews