EXCERPTS
MONTREAL -- The 10,000 Quebec family daycare providers who are unionized with the CSQ will finally receive a 30 per cent increase in their subsidy.
Valérie Grenon, president of the Fédération des intervenantes en petite enfance of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), used terms like "immense pride" and "small miracle" to describe the news on Monday.
In a rare occurrence, the announcement was made at a press conference by two Legault government ministers, Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel and Family Minister Mathieu Lacombe, seated next to the CSQ union leader.
The CSQ's 10,000 family child-care providers had walked out in September 2020, before reaching a tentative agreement. Compensation was at the heart of the dispute.
The workers are not paid by the hour, since they are self-employed; they receive a subsidy from the Ministry for Families for their home-based educational child-care services.
Through the tentative agreement itself, these workers were initially receiving 12 per cent increases. For the rest, the parties had agreed to have a committee analyze the duties and fiscal situation of home child-care providers.
The committee's conclusion led to a 30 per cent increase in the subsidy.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 4, 2021.