Parents of 6,000 children who attend daycares in Montreal and Laval had to make other childcare arrangements Wednesday.
Sixty-one daycares across the city are closed Wednesday and Thursday because employees have gone on strike.
The employees, who belong to the CSN union, have not had a contract since 2015.
One of their key concerns is a change made by employers wherein employees can be called moments before they are scheduled to work and told they are not needed that day, and so they will not be paid.
To protest that and other contract demands about 1,300 unionized workers staged picket lines outside their daycares, and on Wednesday attended a demonstration near the Olympic Stadium.
"They are challenging our seniority. They want to make our work precarious, cutting hours whenever they want to. That means 97 or 98 percent of our workers are women. Some of them are the only income in their family," said Tania Valdez, treasurer for the union.
One protester said it was not fun to protest, but said it was unfair to not be recognized for the good work they do with children.
The CPE employer's association said there were 21 negotiating day left between now and June.
