At the start of a new blitz of strikes in early childhood centers (CPE), parents reiterate their support for the employees of the network. While many have had to deal with the logistical difficulties caused by the walkouts since last month, they still show solidarity with the demands of educators for better working conditions.
Patrick Bossé has two children who attend a childcare center in the Petite-Patrie neighborhood in Montreal. During strike days, he shares custody with his spouse according to their respective schedules. “It’s a fairly complex logistics”, explains this father, who is lucky to also be able to count on a “good family net” which takes over when possible.
With a three-and-a-half-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl at home, Mr. Bossé finds that it is “almost impossible” to work, except during a nap. “You can catch an email here, a phone call there, but it’s a full-time job to keep the kids entertained. “
Fortunately, as a self-employed worker, he can afford to adjust his schedule accordingly. And his wife has not yet needed to tap into her vacation bank. “It’s a good thing, because not knowing how long the conflict can last, we will still have a hidden card in our game!” “
In the meantime, he tries to see the positive side: “It allows me to spend quality time with my children. “
Wind of solidarity
Joëlle Bernard-Hamel has just started maternity leave. She has a three-year-old boy at the CPE and is expecting a second child in early December. “It’s still good, even if I have less physical ability,” drops the nurse on the phone.
She lived her share of stress during the last days of the strike last month, because she lives in Sherbrooke, and her parents, in Montreal. The latter have “repaired” in the last weeks, but she nevertheless had to take time off at her own expense and make “schedule contortions”.
She speaks of a “wind of solidarity with the educators” and considers that it is necessary to “stick together”, because according to her, “the solution to the shortage of places in daycare requires better conditions of care. job “.
On Monday, the first day of the walkouts held this week by the Centrale des unions du Québec, the Confédération des unions nationale and the Fédération des ouvriers du Québec, negotiations between Quebec and the unions were stumbling over the remuneration of employees other than educators. The President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, argued that the government did not have the means to finance a general wage hike in childcare centers, while the unions maintained the opposite, arguing that with the compensatory aid from the federal government to the tune of six billion dollars, Quebec could afford it.
” Not easy “
Marie Simon, mother of a four-year-old boy and a five-month-old baby, also reaffirms her support for the employees of the network. “I support 100% the educators of our CPE, who take care of our children admirably, but afterwards, it is not necessarily easy in everyday life. “
Also on maternity leave, she tries to stimulate her two children as much as possible, who do not have the same rhythm at all. “My daily struggle is to make them both take a nap at the same time!” She admits, laughing.
She takes things “one day at a time” and hopes that the government will offer better working conditions to educators. But like everyone else, she is anxious for the situation to be resolved, for the parents and the educators.
Kate Monfrette also juggles “complicated logistics” for the care of her two children. “It’s not easy for anyone, but no one is angry with the educators. We have all realized that we are completely crippled without them. “
She wonders about the fact that in our society, we agree to pay more for the man who comes to do chores at home than the woman who takes care of our children on a daily basis. And like so many others, she shows solidarity and takes her troubles patiently. “We have seen worse during the pandemic! »She sums up.