Thousands of daycare workers start unlimited strike action

400 centres to stay closed Thursday

Thousands of public daycare workers in Quebec launched an unlimited strike on Wednesday, after contract talks with the government stalled over pay raises for support staff such as kitchen and maintenance employees.

The strike closed about 400 government-subsidized daycare centres across the province, which will remain closed on Thursday.

Quebec's largest daycare workers union says more people in the sector will quit and the province will face labour shortages if the government can't significantly raise wages and improve working conditions.

“The government does not seem to grasp the full extent of the anger of workers, who voted 92.1 per cent in favour of the unlimited strike,” Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS) vice-president Lucie Longchamps said in a statement Tuesday. “For a lot of workers, this negotiation is the last chance.”

About 10,000 daycare workers affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) are taking part in the unlimited strike, with the main sticking point being salaries for support staff.

The FSSS was at the negotiation table Wednesday and will be back Thursday, despite the strike. Another union representing public daycare employees, the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance (FIPEQ), also has a strike mandate but has chosen not to exercise it until next week at the earliest. It is also in negotiations on Thursday.

The Syndicat québécois des employés de service (SQEES), meanwhile, announced Wednesday its members have also voted in favour of a strike mandate.

Quebec has offered a pay raise of about 20 per cent over three years for educators. But support staff — including maintenance and kitchen employees — were offered pay raises of up to nine per cent over three years.

FIPEQ pointed out that similar support staff jobs are paid between 20 per cent and 35 per cent more in schools and elsewhere in the public sector.

Treasury Board President Sonia Lebel acknowledged in an interview with 98.5 FM on Wednesday that daycare support staff don't earn as much as their peers in the public sector, but she said that is because their responsibilities and the work setting are different.

“I cannot make the same effort for the other employees that I did for the educators,” Lebel said.