Excerpts

More than 13,000 workers in 400 early childhood centres in Quebec are holding a one-day strike on Thursday — including 112 CPEs in Montreal and Laval.

“Every striking day is a precious day for the workers and we want to take that one step at a time,” said Caroline Senneville, the president of the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN).

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“ I think we need more respect and more recognition for the job that we do. We’re raising the generations here in CPEs. We’re the one, the starting step of these children’s lives,” said Tina Poirier, CPE Educator at Pointe St-Charles.

“A lot of educators are frustrated in their workplace because of the fact that they really want to help these children and they can’t. Because they don’t have an extra person in there.”

Quebec and the FSSS were still in negotiations as of Wednesday.

The dispute mainly concerns wages, workload, regional disparity bonuses and support for children with special needs.

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