Some 12,000 workers in Quebec’s public daycares, known as CPEs, will be called upon to vote on a strike mandate in November.
The mandate requested by the unions of the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, affiliated with the CSN, is for a five-day strike. These could be exercised in blocks of days or individually, but not in half-days.
The meetings to vote on this strike mandate will take place from Nov. 2 to 15, said Stéphanie Vachon, representative of the early childhood education (CPE) sector at the federation, in an interview on Tuesday.
If strike days are called, they could take place as early as the end of November.
“We find it a shame to have to go there. We say to ourselves: the staff shortage is so big right now; the government should ask us what it can do to keep the staff in place! We don’t see why we have to mobilize, but we have no choice but to go there,” said Vachon. “We hope that this will put pressure on us to obtain more dates (for negotiations), more serious discussions, and then a commitment from the employers to really resolve the staff shortage in the long term.”
Quebec submitted its offers to workers last April.
The province is also facing a shortage of childcare workers and it is trying to optimize the use of those who are currently working.
Salary, leave, and workload are among the points in dispute.
Vachon reported that Quebec is offering a 12.7 per cent increase over five years, while it settled with the public sector for 17.4 per cent over five years.
Negotiations have not been broken off; however, the parties continue to negotiate, and dates have been set for October and November.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews