Thousands of Quebec daycare union members vote in favour of indefinite general strike

One of Quebec's largest public daycare workers' unions is going on strike indefinitely as of Dec. 1 if negotiations with the province do not progress by then.

Members of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), representing some 11,000 public daycare workers, voted 92.1 per cent in favour of the strike after putting the decision to a vote on Thursday.

"Next Tuesday, if the attitude at the negotiation table has not changed and we are still facing the same wall... we will have no other choice but to call an unlimited general strike for the next day, December 1," said Stéphanie Vachon, childcare lead at the union federation at a news conference on Friday.

The union represents 400 Centres de la petite enfance — commonly referred to as CPEs— 106 of which are in Montreal and Laval combined. It also represents workers in 59 CPEs in the Quebec City region.

The CSN joins another public daycare union, the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance du Québec, affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (FIPEQ-CSQ), whose 3,200 members approved a strike mandate on Wednesday by more than 91 per cent. 

Negotiations with the province broke off last Friday after days of intense negotiation. All public daycare unions in Quebec had said if no progress was made in negotiations this week, they would push for an unlimited general strike until an agreement is reached with the province.

Quebec offered a significant salary increase for educators, between 20 and 23 per cent.

However, support staff, including those who work in maintenance, administration and kitchens, were only offered about nine per cent and that has been a sticking point.

"By voting massively for the strike and therefore by agreeing to lose days, even weeks of wages, these already underpaid workers have just told the government that they are united and that they are ready to fight until the end to have a fair agreement for all employees," said Vachon. 

Rolling, temporary strikes have continued since September as more than 18 months of collective agreement negotiations hit an impasse.

Lucie Longchamps, vice-president at the FSSS-CSN, questions why the government won't budge on salary increases for support staff, who represent 15 per cent of all the staff at the CPEs. 

"The government proposal would bring the annual payroll of the 11,000 employees unionized to the CSN to $420 million, while the union proposal would bring the same payroll to $426 million," she said.

She called the $6 million total increase in salaries "a negligible gap," pointing to the $2.9 billion dedicated to attracting and retaining workers, announced in Thursday's economic update.

"It is difficult to interpret the government's refusal as anything other than stubbornness," said Longchamps.