Family daycares vote on mandate to open later until strike day

Heavier pressure tactics could soon begin in family daycare, as 9,000 workers have just voted in favour of a pressure tactics mandate that calls for services to open later and later, up to and including a strike day.

Heavier pressure tactics could soon begin in family daycare, as 9,000 workers have just voted in favour of a pressure tactics mandate that calls for services to open later and later, up to and including a strike day.

The 9,000 family childcare providers in 17 regions of Quebec are members of the unions of the CSQ-affiliated Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance (FIPEQ).

They want to put pressure on the Quebec government to make faster progress in negotiations to renew their collective agreement.

The mandate they adopted, by a 95 per cent majority, provides for later opening of the daycare service, every day of the week, for four weeks.

The first week, the service would open half an hour later; the second week, an hour later; the third week, an hour and a half later; and the fourth week, two hours later.

The mandate also provides for a half-day strike and a full-day strike, but to be exercised at the appropriate time only -- which would not necessarily be as soon as after the first four weeks of delayed opening of the daycare service.

"We don't want to use it. It's our last resort. We'll try to apply pressure to get things moving in other ways, but if we don't have a choice, we don't have a choice," said FIPEQ president Valérie Grenon in an interview.