MONTREAL -- The 10,000 home childcare providers who are unionized with the CSQ voted to strike Sunday that will affect all regions of Quebec.
The Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance du Québec (FIPEQ), affiliated with the CSQ, reported that 97.5 per cent of its members supported the strike beginning April 1.
Pay is the main point in dispute in the negotiations between the Quebec Ministry of Families and the FIPEQ.
Educational managers are not paid by the hour. Rather, they receive a subsidy from the ministry to provide the service at their home. Their remuneration is estimated from the amount of the subsidy and their working hours and other expenses.
The FIPEQ concluded that they receive $12.42 an hour and that they want the equivalent of an hourly wage of $16.75.
Unionized workers met in 15 general assemblies across the province.
In a video posted on social media in the morning, the president of the FIPEQ-CSQ, Valérie Grenon, wanted to mark the occasion of International Women's Rights Day with the announcement.
"We, as workers, whether in the family or in daycare centres, have always struggled to offer quality services. Whether it is at the very beginning when the daycare centres are created or now, to improve our working conditions," she said. "Again, in 2020, we must fight for pay equity (and) a recognition of our rights."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Mar. 8, 2020.
