T he exchanges between the President of the Conseil du trésor, Sonia LeBel, and the representatives of the educators and employees of the childcare centers became even tougher this week. New days of strike have disrupted the daily lives of families across the province and, at the time of writing, the negotiations, which broke off on November 19, are still at an impasse.
The specter of an unlimited general strike looms, members of the Federation of Early Childhood Workers of Quebec (FIPEQ-CSQ) having adopted 91.2% of a mandate to this effect, to be exercised before the holidays. “I think that, sincerely, we have lost sight of the reality of parents, what they experienced in recent months with the pandemic,” said Minister LeBel, referring to the possibility of resorting to a special law if the employees stubbornly disengage.
This is a line that we know well, that of parents “taken hostage” by stubborn workers, who always go “too far” when it comes to using the means of pressure at their disposal to defend their working conditions and, at the same time, the integrity of a public service. The tactics employed by the government in its negotiations with daycare staff are also common: we wave a carrot to educators in the hope that in return they will dissociate themselves from other CPE employees, to whom we make derisory offers.
CPE employees have been without a collective agreement for eighteen months now. Their demands are clear. First, there must be a considerable catching up in salaries for qualified educators, whose profession has historically been devalued. It is utter nonsense that the women who day after us care for and educate toddlers don’t make more than $ 25 an hour. Who do you hope to convince to join this profession, when you start with a salary of $ 19 an hour, which barely allows you to achieve a viable income?
No one disputes the urgent need to increase the salaries of educators, and the offer made to them was also deemed satisfactory. Except that a substantial increase in the salaries of other employment groups that allow day care centers to accomplish their educational mission cannot wait for all that. Minister LeBel may accuse union representatives of being disconnected from reality, educators know very well that, in the field, it is not desirable to let down those in charge of food and maintenance. , administrative and advisory officers. We know how essential their role is for the proper functioning of the network.
It is true that parents of young children have faced more than their fair share of hardships in the past two years, with the pandemic and the shortage of child care spaces. But the government seems to underestimate the support of parents for the cause courageously carried by the staff of the childcare centers.
Last week, in an open letter published in Press, more than 275 parents called for an end to the current impasse: “We, Quebec families exhausted from adapting, ask you to settle this labor dispute through a negotiated agreement in order to save our mental health and that of our children. , but also to save our early childhood education system, ”they wrote. It is understandable that the poor state of the daycare network is the result of past political neglect, and that a bitter agreement, obtained under duress, would aggravate the problem instead of reviving a precious and threatened institution.
In addition, the standoff between the government and daycare workers is intensifying at the same time as consultations are taking place on Bill 1, on the improvement of educational childcare services, tabled in October. .
Over the past year, many citizens’ voices have spoken out to denounce the alarming lack of child care spaces. These concerns have obviously been heard and taken seriously by the Legault government. During the tabling of Bill 1 by the Minister of Families, François Legault declared that it was essential to create 37,000 new places “at the most sacred” to complete the network – and so much the better.
Still we wonder how will these new places be created if First of all, we do not commit to investing in the fair remuneration of the staff of the childcare centers, especially if we take into account the fact that the lack of manpower constitutes one of the main obstacles to the development of new daycare places.
By refusing to accede to requests from childcare workers, the government is sending a contradictory message. Or, it sends a very clear message: to create new places in daycare, it is necessary to tighten the screws to the employees. That they fall into line, the parents are waiting. After all, this would not be the first time that the Legault government has addressed essential workers in this tone. However, this does not bode well for the long-term survival of a public, universal and strong early childhood education service.