Agreements in principle were reached on Wednesday by Quebec with the CSN, the CSQ and the FTQ regarding working conditions in childcare centers (CPE). Union members will be called upon to vote on these agreements in the coming days.
The indefinite general strike, which was about to be called Thursday in the CPEs affiliated with the Federation of early childhood workers of Quebec (FIPEQ-CSQ), is therefore canceled.
“An agreement in principle on monetary and salary matters will be submitted to its members over the next few days,” noted the FIPEQ-CSQ on Wednesday evening, adding that it will not issue any comments until then on the content of that. -this.
At the CSN, 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. The nearly 400 CPEs affiliated to this union are already on an indefinite general strike and therefore remain closed until further notice.
“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, CPE representative at the FSSS.
Having reached an agreement in principle, members of the Quebec Union of Service Employees (SQEES-FTQ) will not go on strike on Thursday. They will have to vote in the next few days.
“Historic” agreement
In the National Assembly on Wednesday, Sonia LeBel, President of the Treasury Board, spoke of a “historic” agreement concluded with the CSN, the first of three agreements announced during the day.
“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.
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.
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 on the negotiations 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