EXCERPTS

Quebec's 13,000 unionized home daycare workers have formally ratified a new collective agreement with the provincial government.

In a ratification vote held Sunday, 95 per cent of the workers voted in favour of approving the new deal, which will gradually boost the income of government-subsidized home daycare operators to $34.43 a day per child by 2013. Prior to the agreement, home daycare providers received $26 a day per child - $19 from the Quebec government and another $7 from parents.

The daycare workers voted 89 per cent in favour of the agreement on Nov. 28, which allowed it to move to a ratification vote. The final approval of the deal brings an end to months of negotiations and union pressure tactics, including a one-day strike on Nov. 9 that affected 92,000 children across Quebec.

-reprinted from the Montreal Gazette