MONTREAL - Montreal's army of home-based daycare operators have begun to organize under the umbrella of one of Quebec's biggest unions.

But many still aren't sure how it will help improve working conditions or what it will mean to parents or Quebec's $7-a-day childcare system.

"Will we get paid for Christmas, sick days? What it means, I don't know," said Rachel Funderburk, the owner of Northview Home Daycare. "It can't make things any worse."

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Funderburk is just one of the hundreds of home-based daycare operators waiting to sign a newly-minted union card.

After the Quebec government announced 10 days ago it would not appeal an Oct. 31 Superior Court ruling giving Quebec's home-based daycare operators the right to organize, Quebec's home-based daycare operators are poised to make labour history.

So far, in Montreal, 420 daycares have organized under the umbrella of the Confederation of National Trade Unions.

Thousands more will certify in the weeks and months ahead, said Sylvie Tonnelier, president of the Federation Intervenantes en petite enfance du Quebec, a union that represents education workers in Quebec.

A collective agreement for home-based daycare operators is looking more and more like a potential reality, said Sylvia Romero, an organizer with another daycare group involved in the effort.

As to where replacement workers would come from or the money to pay home-based daycare operators for statutory holidays and vacations, Romero said, no one is quite sure.

Premier Jean Charest has guaranteed $7-a-day spots - and no change in their total numbers - until after 2010.

"People are afraid, they have lots of questions," said Romero, who runs a home-based daycare.

Still, Romero said, the momentum to organize is growing.

Numbering more than 14,000 across Quebec - home-based daycare operators provide 44 per cent of the province's $7-a-day daycare spots, close to 90,000 spots.

However, unlike childcare educators working in government-run $7-a-day daycare centres, home-based daycare operators have been treated as self-employed workers.

They are not covered by workers' compensation through the workplace health and safety board. They receive no vacation pay or paid sick days and statutory holidays.

When you factor in 10-hour shifts and the cost of running a home-based daycare, heating, materials and food, Romero said, hourly wages come in at less than $5-an-hour.

"We are tired of being cheap labour," said Marie Mady, a former kindergarten teacher now running Young Explorers Daycare in her home.

"The provincial government is saving money on us," said the 43-year-old daycare operator.

"The last time I had a sick day was April 3, 2000," said Mady. "I remember because I was in the hospital."

She said her days begins at 7 a.m. and end at 6 p.m., five days a week. She collects less than $900 a week in subsidies and parent's $7-a-day contribution, to run the daycare.

Across Quebec, home-based daycare operators are regulated by 161 organizing offices located in government-run daycares, 20 of which are located on the Island of Montreal.

© The Montreal Gazette 2008