Also impatient after months of waiting for negotiations for the renewal of collective agreements to begin in early childhood centers, the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS) requested conciliation.
The FSSS, affiliated with the Confederation of National Unions (CSN), represents 12,400 workers in CPEs.
The collective agreements expired on March 31, 2023, at the same time as those in the public sector.
Recently, it was the Federation of early childhood workers (FIPEQ), affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), which complained of the same slowness in starting negotiations with the Quebec government, which had submitted its requests last September.
However, FIPEQ has something special that it wants to negotiate for both its members who work in daycare centers and its members who work in family daycare services, who are called daycare service managers. In total, it represents 13,000 workers in childcare services.
The FSSS has also been saying it has been ready to negotiate for months. Unusual fact: she therefore requested conciliation, even before negotiations began, said Stéphanie Vachon, representative of the CPE sector at the FSSS, in an interview on Monday.
“I’m really hopeful. It’s rare that we make a request for conciliation before even sitting down and submitting our requests. So for us, we got to this point, it’s because our workers were really at a point where they wanted negotiations to begin. We want to and we’ve been ready for a long time. So, we think that the request for conciliation will have a positive impact. We went to get help,” said M.me Vachon.
However, she has not yet obtained a date for a possible conciliation meeting.
“As soon as we are able to have a meeting with the conciliator, I think that things will be able to be resolved and I am hopeful that things will be resolved in March,” said Ms. Vachon.
In their case, the negotiation also delays because of a complex process, made up of regional and national negotiations, and the prior development of a negotiation protocol, before starting.
“It’s the time that everyone gets along in each region that makes it a little longer,” said M.me Vachon.
Quebec is waiting for the others
When FIPEQ, affiliated with the CSQ, complained on February 22 that it had not really been able to begin its negotiations, even though it had submitted its demands last September, the president of the Treasury Board , Sonia LeBel, replied that she had to wait for the CSN and the FTQ, which also represent these workers.
“I only have the CSQ which has filed for the moment. We will prepare the government offer, but it takes all the requests before doing so,” replied the minister.
In fact, the FSSS represents the majority of workers in early childhood centers, while the FIPEQ represents the majority of those responsible for family daycare services.
FIPEQ, further along in its negotiation process, since it submitted its demands last September, began to mobilize its members and demonstrated in Quebec on February 22. There is no question of a strike yet, but “we have it in mind, because we are trying to make things happen,” confided its president, Valérie Grenon, in an interview.
The FSSS is not there yet. “We are really far from talking about the strike. Not at all, not at all, not at all. We really want to leave room for negotiation,” concluded Stéphanie Vachon.