Negotiations ongoing to avoid 3 more strike days in Quebec childcare centres

Negotiations were continuing on Friday, and all weekend if necessary, in an attempt to avoid three more strike days scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week in 400 CPEs, Quebec childcare centres.

If these days of walkout actually take place, they will be the 11th, 12th and 13th strike days for these unionized members of the CSN-affiliated Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS).

The Quebec government and the FSSS have been negotiating on a more sustained basis in recent days, but negotiations began several months ago.

The other three union organizations involved in these national negotiations had already renewed their collective agreements several months ago. They are the CSQ-affiliated Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance (FIPEQ), the Syndicat québécois des employé(e)s de service (SQEES) and the Syndicat des métallos, both affiliated to the FTQ. However, it is the FSSS that has the largest number of CPE members.

At her last press conference on Tuesday, Stéphanie Vachon, FSSS representative for the Early Childhood Centres sector, stated that the only thing standing in the way of a settlement was the salary conditions, and that once these had been agreed, “everything else should come in afterwards”.

However, Quebec is sticking to its framework of 17.4 per cent wage increases over five years, the same as those granted to all government employees, as well as to other union organizations representing workers in day-care centers.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews