MONTREAL -- Negotiations between the union representing 10,000 family daycare managers and the Quebec Families Ministry have intensified, in a last-ditch attempt to avoid an unlimited general strike by daycare workers that is scheduled to start Monday.

The managers are set to end their rotating regional strikes that began Sept. 1 on Friday. The last regions affected by the rotating strikes are the Montérégie and the Laurentians.

About 40 negotiation meetings have been held between the Families Ministry and union group the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance de la CSQ since March 2019. The talks had slowed at the end of June, although they picked up again over the last few days.

The dispute centres mainly around the workers' salaries and the care of children with special needs as well as compensation for the workers for having to fill out paperwork about these children and having to meet their parents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2020.