Parents for more than 21,000 children must secure other arrangements for their kids on Monday, with unionized daycare workers on strike for the day.
"We definitely understand the inconvenience and wish there was another option to get the government moving," said Jeff Begley, president of Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux-CSN.
"We're going to hope that this will be the last strike day and that after that, we're going to be able to fix this collective bargaining agreement,"
The FSSS-CSN union represents about 11,000 employees working at Quebec daycares, known as centres de la petite enfance or CPEs.
Over 200 daycare locations will see picket lines in Montreal on Monday, with other events planned in Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Rimouski.
An estimated 2,000 workers and supporters are then expected to converge on the Quartier des spectacles downtown, and march to the Ministry of Families offices on Fullum St.
The government wants daycare workers to push back their retirement from age 60 to 61, or assume a portion of the retirement plan’s expected future losses. Such demands are untenable, according to the union.
The daycare workers have been without a contract for over 30 months.
Negotiations between the government and the CPE workers union broke down on Thursday and have not resumed since.