Quebec and public daycare unions reach agreement in principle
CBC
After days of strikes and months of negotiations, the labour dispute between public daycare workers and the Quebec government appears to be nearly resolved.
After two days of "intensive negotiations," the FSSS–CSN, a branch of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux which represents 11,000 daycare employees, says it submitted an agreement in principle to its members for a vote at around 1:30 this afternoon.
"We've worked really hard to get here," said FSSS–CSN spokesperson Stéphanie Vachon. "We feel we've done everything we can to push forward the workers' priorities at the negotiation table, but in the end the decision is up to them."
The union says it won't be giving any more details on the agreement in principle until its members have had a chance to review it and have their say.
More to come
At a time when Canada is vastly expanding its child-care system, and just eight months after a major E. coli outbreak in Calgary child-care centres, an Alberta Health Services analysis shows the province is lagging in its rate of daycare inspections, falling far short of its guideline of at least two inspections per year at each of the province's licensed daycare centres.