MONTREAL -- A three- or four-day strike has started Monday for many of Quebec's public daycare workers, with union federations ready to ask their members for unlimited strike mandates.
Meanwhile, Quebec is defending its offer to the unions representing workers in the province's child care centers (CPE).
Quebec says it has chosen to give priority to educators because they are underpaid and there is a shortage of people willing to do the job.
Officials explain this is why educators are being offered a larger salary increase.
However, the province is seemingly not being as generous to the "other" CPE workers, such as those in administration, maintenance and the kitchen.
The unions are insisting that these workers would also benefit from a "salary catch-up."
In an interview on 98.5 FM Monday morning, the president of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, maintained that the government is not financially capable of doing the same for these "other" workers in the CPEs.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 22, 2021.
