Without a collective agreement for a year and a half and without recognition of their work for too long, the educators and childcare workers affiliated with the CSQ and the CSN voted for an indefinite general strike mandate with a very large majority (over 90%). ) after 10 days of strike over three months. In doing so, they offer us not only an example of determination, but also of solidarity. Through their struggle, they seek not only to improve their working conditions, but also those of their colleagues without whom the proper functioning of a childcare center would be impossible. They are united as much by conviction as by necessity!
This struggle is essential, because it highlights, like the struggle of other workers, the fact that the work of the care, still mainly carried out by women, is essential for our society, in particular to free parents who have to work. Likewise, we know, thanks to various studies, that the Quebec network of childcare centers makes it possible to level out social inequalities from early childhood and that it has a positive impact on the well-being of our children, whether by contributing academic success, the detection of developmental difficulties or the prevention of health problems (see work by S. Côté and R. Tremblay).
It is urgent that the Legault government establish a fair wage increase for all in order to promote the sustainable well-being of our community.
This struggle is essential, because it reminds us of some of the constitutive inequalities of our society, where typically female jobs are too often less well paid than typically male jobs (which in itself is one of the explanatory factors for the of educators) and where it is most often mothers (partly because they are less well paid) who are absent from work during cuts in childcare services or to take care of children when they are ill.
Unfortunately, if gender equality and solidarity are values at the heart of the struggle of educators, we cannot say the same for the policies of the Legault government. Today, Minister Sonia LeBel would like us to believe that educators are taking parents and their employers hostage – it is poor knowledge of parents’ capacities to juggle between work and child care (overdeveloped capacities during the pandemic) -, rather, it is the government that takes parents and their employers hostage. This government has not made the necessary investments in the early childhood education network over the past three years when the shortage of educators has long been known and enrollment rates in the early childhood education program. early childhood education is starving (the graduation rate is around 25%).
If this government, and its predecessors, had recognized and valued the essential work of educators, these negotiations would not involve the current “salary catch” or indefinite general strike.
It is time for this government to prove that women’s work is important and that Mr. Legault’s obsession with “increasing the average salary of Quebecers” (around $ 56,000 per year) concerns all workers. workers ! Mr. Legault, you have a golden opportunity, and the means of federal transfers, to make your dream come true! What are you waiting for? To the early childhood educators and workers, without whom many would not be free to work, we are with you wholeheartedly. Let’s all stand stand up !
* This letter was written in collaboration with Kate Bouchard, mother and research and planning officer.