12,000 Quebec daycare workers hold demonstrations and strike day

Childcare workers, members of the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux union, affiliated with the CSN, who are holding a one-day strike on Jan. 23, 2025. They were demonstrating in Montreal in the morning. (Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press) (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

More than 12,000 union members in 400 public daycares in Quebec are holding a one-day strike on Thursday.

A few hundred of them also demonstrated in the morning in eastern Montreal and marched to the Ministry of Family offices.

This is the first day of strike action for the members of unions affiliated with the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, affiliated with the CSN. Their mandate provides for five strikes, to be held at the appropriate time.

For the moment, no other dates have been set.

The parties were still negotiating the day before. They have been negotiating for eight months.

Stéphanie Vachon, representative of the CPE sector at the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux, says that Quebec is still only offering her a 12.5 per cent ​​increase over five years, while the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance, affiliated with the CSQ, which settled with Quebec, obtained the same 17.4 per cent increase over five years that the public sector obtained.

The Treasury Board said on Thursday that the 17.4 per cent increase over five years had been granted “based on compensation in terms of flexibility in work organization that have a real impact on services.”

Quebec has therefore already reached an agreement with the FIPEQ, which represents 3,000 workers in CPEs, as well as with the Syndicat québécois des employé(e)s de service (SQEES) and the Syndicat des métallos, both affiliated with the FTQ.

The FIPEQ members have already ratified their agreement in principle.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 23, 2025.