Family daycare workers decry frustrating start to negotiations
After months of delay, negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements for thousands of family daycare workers in Quebec have finally begun.
However, the largest group of workers, the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance du Québec (FIPEQ-CSQ), says it is dissatisfied with the offer it received from the Quebec government on April 11.
"If he wanted to axe family daycares, if that's his solution then he found it. Some people are going to leave. How do you expect to attract the next generation if you cut back on working conditions?" said FIPEQ President Valérie Grenon, arguing Quebec is moving backwards.
She points out Quebec law calls for six hours of compulsory professional training per year for workers.
The government used to pay $85 for the mandatory training, but now it does not want to.
She says Quebec also wants to abolish a committee to discuss childcare issues.
Financially, it's not enough, argued Grenon.
Family daycare workers are not paid the same as those in public childcare centres.
The latter are paid by the hour, while workers in family settings receive a subsidy from the Family Ministry to cover their wages and daycare expenses, such as groceries and toys.
Grenon says a daycare with six children, for example, receives an increase equivalent to 12.7 per cent over five years from Quebec, but inflation is higher than that.
Despite this somewhat frustrating start to negotiations, FIPEQ, which represents 8,500 family daycare workers, says it is determined to roll up its sleeves.
Another negotiation meeting is scheduled for May 6, and Grenon says the government seems ready to add more dates.
FIPEQ says it has not yet requested mediation, but it is not closing the door on the idea.
"For the moment, no", said Grenon when asked if workers are already talking about more intense pressure tactics.
The collective agreement for FIPEQ's 8,500 family daycare workers expired on March 31, 2023.
FIPEQ first submitted its demands in September 2023.
On April 11, 2024, the Quebec government submitted its offer.
It has not yet tabled a proposal for public daycare workers.
FIPEQ represents over 11,000 childcare workers in different types of daycares across Quebec.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 25, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Custom baseball card released of Blue Jays fan struck in the face with foul ball
Liz McGuire, the Blue Jays fan who was struck in the face with a 110 m.p.h. foul ball last week, has been pictured on a custom baseball trading card applauding her fandom to the game.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
As Canada warms, infectious disease risks spread north
Cases of Lyme disease have now increased more than 1,000 per cent in a decade as the warming climate pushes the boundaries of a range of pathogens and risk factors northward.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
NEW 'Language is identity': Indigenous Ontario legislator to make history at Queen's Park
Decades after being punished in a residential school for speaking his own language, Sol Mamakwa will hold the powerful to account at Ontario's legislature in the very same language past governments tried to bury.
Experts seeing 'more and more' hate content created by artificial intelligence
B'nai Brith Canada flagged the issue of AI-generated hate content in a recent report on antisemitism.
The dreams of a 60-year-old beauty contestant come to an abrupt end in Argentina
A 60-year-old woman saw her dreams of becoming the oldest Miss Universe contestant in history melt away in a haze of sequins and selfies Saturday at Argentina’s annual beauty pageant.