The managers of family daycare services unionized with the CSQ are being asked to decide starting this Tuesday on a mandate for pressure tactics to be used at the appropriate time. And the situation is not much better in the CPEs, although the issues there are different.
The strike mandate sought by the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance (FIPEQ) is not unlimited, but “progressive, with gradation,” which could eventually go as far as targeted service interruptions, says the president of the union group, Valérie Grenon. The meetings are to be held from September 3 to 30 in all 17 regions of Quebec where the FIPEQ, affiliated with the CSQ, has members in family daycare services.
The FIPEQ also has thousands of members in CPEs, but this time it is its members in family daycare services who are concerned by these assemblies. It has approximately 9,000 members in family daycare services.
The approximately 3,000 FIPEQ members working in childcare centres voted last May for a strike mandate, which was ratified by 85%. Although this mandate is also described as progressive, the two deal with different issues, explains Patrick Jasmin, communications advisor for the FIPEQ.
In an interview, Mr.me Grenon explains that his members in family daycare services have come to this point because negotiations are making little progress, after several months of talks with the Ministry of Families and the Treasury Board. Their collective agreements expired in March 2023, at the same time as the public sector collective agreements. The FIPEQ had filed its requests in September 2023, but Quebec did not file its offers until April 2024.
Family daycare providers are not paid by the hour: they receive a subsidy from Quebec which takes into account their remuneration, the children’s food, housing, toys and equipment necessary for the daycare service.
Negotiations are still ongoing: three meetings are planned for September and dates have been set through December, Mr.me Grenon. She maintains that Quebec has not improved its offer since it was filed in April. It still does not offer what it had finally offered to union members in the public and parapublic sectors to reach an agreement with them. “Things have to move; things have to improve,” says the union leader.
If her members vote in favour of the pressure tactics mandate, she hopes she won’t have to use it and that the pressure will be enough to change the situation, especially since Quebec urgently needs places in daycare services. But with the September 30 deadline, the exercise of these potential pressure tactics may not be long in coming. “The members are very mobilized. It will happen quickly,” warns M.me Grain.
In an interview on the show All one morning mardithe president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, says she “respects” the pressure tactics: “It’s up to them.” Speaking to Patrick Masbourian, Mme LeBel indicated that he had “made giant steps” during the last round of negotiations, recalling having increased subsidies by 30% for family daycare services.
“Now we have to find solutions to maintain growth, to be able to retain people in the family environment – because they are important and it helps to complete our network – and to attract new people in the family environment,” she said. “We will work with them at the negotiating table.”
“A thousand miles from understanding each other”
The situation is hardly better in the CPE sector, where unions representing 12,000 workers unionized with the CSN say they are “a thousand miles away from reaching an agreement” with Quebec regarding the renewal of their collective agreements.
Attached to the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, affiliated with the CSN, they are however not at the same level of mobilization as those of the CSQ, already equipped with a strike mandate.
In an interview Tuesday, the representative of the CPE sector at the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, Stéphanie Vachon, deplored the fact that negotiations with the Ministry of Families, the Treasury Board and CPE associations are “progressing very slowly.” “We see more of an emergency to resolve. I don’t feel that there is the same urgency to resolve on the employer side,” she opined.
For the moment, the pressure tactics are light: t-shirts, scarves and posters. But “we are going to consult our unions to possibly proceed with heavier pressure tactics,” warns M.me Vachon.
With Duty
