More than 13 months after the expiry of the collective agreements, Quebec is finally presenting its offers to all the unions representing the thousands of workers in the Centres de la Petite Enfance (CPEs).
The office of the Chair of the Conseil du trésor, Sonia LeBel, confirmed this on Tuesday. It would not comment further for the moment.
The tabling of Québec’s offers allows negotiations to begin for the renewal of the collective agreements, which expired on March 31, 2023, at the same time as those in the public sector.
The two main groupings of these unions, the FSSS, affiliated to the CSN, and the FIPEQ, affiliated to the CSQ, will receive these employer offers on Tuesday, and the FTQ on Wednesday.
The FIPEQ had tabled its demands in September 2023; the FSSS did so last week.
The two union federations have been saying they were ready to start negotiations for several months. In February, however, Minister LeBel stated that she would wait until the three central labour bodies had tabled their demands before tabling her offers.
Now that these steps have been taken, the real negotiations can begin, more than 13 months after the expiry of the collective agreements.
CSN and CSQ disappointed
“We can’t say that this is a good starting point, in fact,” summed up Stéphanie Vachon, representative of the CPE sector at the FSSS, interviewed a few hours after receiving the government’s offers.
Quebec is offering a 12.7 per cent increase over five years, the same offer it made to the public sector common front on December 6, 2023, before settling for 17.4 per cent.
“This is not the way to attract new staff and keep existing staff,” says Valérie Grenon, president of the FIPEQ. She said she was “not surprised, but disappointed” by these offers.
The union demands relate to pay raises, support for children with special needs, and leave.
Quebec, for its part, is facing a shortage of childcare workers and a high demand for places in childcare centres. It is therefore seeking to “optimize” the staff already in place in the CPEs.
“For us, it won’t work. We won’t be able to find a way to solve the staff shortage problem that way. It’s going to take a lot more,” Vachon objected.
Grenon does not see in these offers any “enhancement of the status of care workers in the network,” when on the contrary we need to retain those who are there and attract others.
Negotiations look set to be lengthy, according to the two union leaders.
The FSSS already has a pressure tactics mandate, but this excludes strike action. Vachon mentions wearing T-shirts as the next step. For the moment, the priority is to start these negotiations at the end of May,” she says.
The FIPEQ is currently consulting its members on a pressure tactics mandate that could go as far as a “progressive strike”, i.e. in stages.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews