Faced with a deadlock at the negotiating table of the regulated and subsidized home environment, workers from ADIM Montérégie held a one-day strike on September 4th . An indefinite general strike will begin on September 21st if no deal is reached.
Many workers gathered in front of the office of Marie-Claude Nichols who invited them to benefit from the enhanced visibility. The chanted message was clear; they ask for better working conditions. “Your requests are fair and relevant. You have the support of parents and the public, what you are doing is wonderful. You take care of our little ones. You educate them, you care for them, you start them off on the right foot so that they become good young people of tomorrow. It needs real recognition through a living wage. You work 50 to 60 hours a week. You combine care, disinfection, paperwork and love. You carry the network”, said Anne Dionne, second vice-president of the Centrale des unions du Québec (CSQ), addressing the present workers.
Thus, workers in regulated and subsidized home environment settings ask for a salary equivalent to $ 16.75 an hour, compared to the hourly rate of $ 12.42 that they currently have. They want to be paid the same salary as the early childhood educators who are at the first tier.
According to Mrs. Dionne, 1,600 spots would be available in the Suroît if there were more workers. In Quebec, the number is increasing to 13,000 spots that are not granted due to negligence. Also, 32,000 women left the job market because they were unable to find a place in child care.
For her part, Mrs. Mélanie Piché, president of ADIM du Suroît, clarified that there are 600 officials in the region and that for 10 years, more than
250 workers have left the network.
Indefinite strike as of September 21st
If no deal is reached, an indefinite strike is scheduled for September 21st . The workers in Montérégie are therefore issuing a clear ultimatum to the government. “I want to speak to the 5,900 families affected by this conflict. The only one responsible for the fiasco of these negotiations is the government and the elected representatives of the Coalition avenir Quebec. They are determined to keep 10,000 women and men below the minimum wage. We need you to make things happen. Our members are exhausted and breathless with the lack of recognition. They leave the profession by the hundreds. This is the eleventh hour: we have nothing more to lose and parents must prepare for a potentially prolonged shutdown”, says the president of ADIM Montérégie, France Lavallée.
