April 18, 2024

La Ronge Northerner

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Child care centers are on strike Monday and Tuesday

(Montreal) The Child Care Center (CPE) community will again be affected by the strike days at the beginning of the week in hopes of blocking negotiations to renew the collective agreement.


Frederick Lacroix-Kocher
Canadian Press

On Mondays and Tuesdays, workers who are members of Syndicate Cubicois des Employees and Employees de Service (SQEES) affiliated with FTQ will perform at ten childcare centers in Quebec, including the Laurentites, Capitol-National and Montreal regions. .

They hope to be heard in Quebec as talks resume with their union on October 21, which speaks to a stalemate in the discussions.

Its chairman, Sylvie Nelson, recalled that negotiations stumbled mainly on the pay issue. Like other unions, SQEES-FTQ is asking for an increase of about 27% over three years, with educators and workers in child care centers at other levels such as kitchen, administration and education. ‘Maintenance.

“I don’t think these are exaggerated demands based on the work they do. I don’t know what the government is waiting for, but it will turn into a desert. Many are leaving,” he said.Me Nelson in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Currently, in a CPE, a qualified educator earns $ 19 at the first level and up to $ 25.18 at the 10th level.e And the last stage.

For its part, Quebec proposes to increase wages to $ 21.38 in the first instance and $ 28.31 out of 10 at the end of the collective agreement.e And last level, but only for qualified educators.

With a $ 50 bonus per week for agreeing to work 40 hours, the increase for these educators can reach up to 17% in three years. With this total, the government wants to encourage academics to extend their time to tackle human resource shortages.

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Currently, there are 32 and 35 hours. Not 40 hours. We also want a work-family balance. Thus the beneficiaries are not much [de la prime], About what we hear in our troops, “Mr.Me Nelson

On Thursday, the chair of the Treasury Board, Sonia Lebel, announced that she was now paying part of the increase the government had given to academics. If this is the first step, MMe Nelson noted that this decision excludes many staff in child care centers.

It does not affect people in administration, cooking and home maintenance. All of these work in a child care center. This is teamwork, ”he said.

MMe Nelson said he was “depressed” by the slow pace of negotiations. After the October 21 meeting, some other dates between Quebec and SQEES-FTQ are now scheduled for between December.

“We are [les représentants syndicaux] Available day, night and night, said Mr.Me Nelson We want negotiation failure. It should end and we want a signed collective agreement. ”

SQEES-FTQ members voted in favor of a 10-day strike. The use of other days of dismissal will be evaluated in a timely manner, as specified by Ms.Me Nelson

Last week, CPE workers who are members of other unions also protested in some areas.