An agreement in principle was reached on Wednesday by Quebec with the CSN and the FTQ regarding working conditions in childcare centers.
The agreement in principle will be submitted to members as quickly as possible, the FSSS, which is affiliated with the CSN, said on Wednesday afternoon.
“We worked extremely hard to get there. We feel that we have done all we can to advance the priorities of women workers at the bargaining table, but ultimately the decision is up to them. This is why we will give them the chance to speak out as soon as possible, ”said Stéphanie Vachon, representing childcare centers at the FSSS.
For her part, Sonia LeBel, President of the Treasury Board, spoke of a “historic” agreement reached on Wednesday.
“I am very happy to see that we have succeeded in reaching an agreement in principle with the CSN. I want to thank all our teams, especially the CSN teams. Mainly in the last two days, we have made every effort to reach an agreement. Now, the CSN will have to present this agreement to its members, we will give them the opportunity to unveil the details, but it is a historic agreement, which prioritizes educators, but which also makes efforts for support employees ” , she reacted to Quebec.
For what follows, the unions affiliated with the CSN will organize general meetings “as quickly as possible” in order to set out in detail the employers’ offers and allow members to vote on the question, which could take place as early as this week. “The CPE workers unionized with the CSN will return to work as soon as the national agreement in principle has been ratified by the workers,” noted the union central.
Almost 400 CPEs affiliated with the FSSS-CSN have been on an indefinite general strike for almost a week.
Workers in childcare centers affiliated with the CSQ should normally start an indefinite general strike on Thursday, but could be presented with a proposal for an agreement in principle as early as Wednesday. The union is to take stock of this publicly at the end of the day on Wednesday.
Mme LeBel said he hoped for an agreement to be reached in the next few hours. “We continue to put all the necessary efforts to avoid this strike,” she said.
Having reached an agreement in principle, the union members of the FTQ will not go on strike on Thursday.
In the negotiations, Quebec chose to give priority to educators because they are underpaid – by its own admission – and there is a shortage of educators. It therefore offers them larger salary increases.
“The salary increases offered by the government for qualified and specialized educators represent a salary increase of 18% for the duration of the collective agreement, ie 3 years. According to this offer, a qualified educator will receive at 1er April 2022 an hourly wage of $ 30.03 ”, specifies a note sent by the CSN before the agreement in principle.
The main stumbling block concerned the salary increases offered by Quebec to “other” workers than educators in early childhood centers. These are employees in the kitchen, administration and maintenance. For these jobs, the government proposed increases varying between 6% and 9%, while the CSN requested increases varying between 17% and 20.3%.
With The Canadian Press