Parents in Montreal and Laval are breathing a sigh of relief, as their children will be able to return to daycare Monday.
The union representing daycare workers has agreed to lift its strike, more than a week after workers at 57 daycares in Montreal and Laval went off the job.
The workers are expected to vote next weekend on a deal proposed by a mediator from Quebec's Ministry of Labour.
In the meantime, children can go back to daycare Monday morning, the Montreal-Laval CPE union said.
Without a contract since 2015
The workers have been without a collective agreement since March 2015, and they have held multiple, one-day strikes over the past several months.
Last Wednesday, 1,300 of them walked off the job in an open-ended strike that left parents scrambling to find alternative child care.
The main issues in the dispute relate to scheduling, seniority and working conditions.
The workers' union and the group representing their employers, the Association patronale nationale des CPE, are expected to present the new deal favourably to their members, the workers' union said.
Parents had mixed views of the strike
Céline Magontier, a member of a group of parents supporting the daycare workers, said their demands were reasonable.
She welcomed the end of the strike, saying she hoped the workers' demands were met.
The mediators have asked that the details of the proposed agreement remain confidential.
"I would have been able to handle the strike for much longer if necessary," Magontier said on RDI Week-end on Sunday.
"The educators have a direct impact on the quality of education our children receive. So it's important that educators in Quebec have decent working conditions."
"Since my child's quality of life depends directly on the educators' working conditions, I would have been able to handle [the strike] for longer if necessary," Magontier said.
Victoria Camerota is the spokesperson for a group of parents who banded together against the strike. She said they viewed it unfavourably because it was open-ended and started to have serious consequences on families.
Some parents were forced to cut down on their hours at work and, she said, four of them even lost their jobs because they didn't have access to child care.
Camerota said those parents have approached Quebec's labour standards board to find out what they can do to get their jobs back.
"We're so relieved. We cried tears of joy this morning," Camerota said on RDI Week-end on Sunday.