Thousands of Quebec daycare union members vote in favour of indefinite general strike

One ofQuebec's largest public daycare workers' unions is goingon strike indefinitely as of Dec. 1 if negotiations with the province do not progress by then.

Members of the Confdration des syndicats nationaux (CSN), representing some 11,000 public daycare workers, voted 92.1 per cent in favour of the strikeafter putting the decision to a vote on Thursday.

"Next Tuesday, if the attitude at the negotiation tablehas not changed and we are still facing the same wall...we will have no other choice but to call an unlimited general strike for the next day, December 1," saidStphanie Vachon,childcare lead at the union federation at a newsconference on Friday.

The union represents 400 Centres de la petite enfance commonly referred to as CPEs 106 of which are in Montreal and Laval combined. It also represents workers in59 CPEs in the Quebec City region.

The CSN joins another public daycare union, theFdration des intervenantes en petite enfance duQubec, affiliated with theCentrale des syndicats du Qubec(FIPEQ-CSQ), whose 3,200 members approved a strike mandate on Wednesday by more than 91 per cent.

Negotiations with the province broke off last Friday after days of intense negotiation. All public daycare unions in Quebec had said if no progress was made in negotiationsthis week,they would push for an unlimited general strikeuntil anagreement is reached with the province.

Quebec offered a significant salary increase for educators, between 20 and 23 per cent.

However, support staff, including those who work in maintenance, administration and kitchens, were only offered about nineper cent and that has been a sticking point.

"By voting massively for the strike and therefore by agreeing to lose days, even weeks of wages, these already underpaid workers have just told the government that they are united and that they are ready to fight until the end to have a fair agreement for all employees," said Vachon.

Rolling, temporary strikes have continued since September as more than 18 months of collective agreement negotiations hit an impasse.

'Money for everyone except for the childcare workers'

Lucie Longchamps, vice-president at the FSSS-CSN, questionswhy the government won't budge on salary increases for support staff, who represent15 per cent of all the staff at the CPEs.

"The government proposal would bring the annual payroll of the 11,000 employees unionized to the CSN to $420 million, while the union proposal would bring the same payroll to $426 million," she said.

She called the $6 million total increase in salaries "a negligible gap," pointing to the $2.9 billion dedicated to attracting and retainingworkers, announced in Thursday's economic update.

"It is difficult to interpret the government's refusal as anything other than stubbornness," saidLongchamps.

"There seems to be money for everyone, except for the childcare workers."

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Quebec said it wouldn'truleout the possibility of a back-to-work order should the strike be approved.

"This is certainly one of the tools that are available," said the president of Quebec's Treasury Board, SoniaLeBel, on Thursday when asked if the province is willing to take legal action against the potential strike.

Legault confidenta negotiated solution will be reached

On Friday,Premier Franois Legault said he doesn't think the legislation will be necessary ashe is convinced there will be a negotiated solution with the union before the strike is slated to begin.

"What I understand is that we'revery, very close to an agreement with the daycare workers," he said during a news conference.

Legault, however, said the union's demandfor equal salaries for support staff "doesn't make sense" and "wouldn't be fair," saying cleaners in daycaresshouldn't earn morethan cleaners in schools.

"So what we say is, we have to be fair," he said. "The important part for me is that people working as daycare workers that they be happy with the new salary and it looks like we answered the demand they made. So I don't see why we shouldn't be able to find a solution."

LeBelhas criticizedthe unlimited strike mandates, saying the government never intended to offer the same salary increases to all childcare workers.

"We will not be able to offer and we will not offer [pay] increases at the same level as we did for educators, teachers and nurses," she said on Thursday.

She called on the unions representing public daycare workers to be reasonable rather than putting the burden on parents who are now forced to stay home with their kids.

Vachonsays daycare workers understand the impact an unlimited strike would have on families, but says the province needs to meet them halfway.

"We still have a lot of parents behind us. And we think the ones that are mad at us for that, they should go to say to the government that [it] needs to move."