During the FIQ’s 13^th convention, a panel highlighted the deep transformations that affect care work. They spoke of the essential and often invisible work of taking care of others in a context of government centralization, service privatization and austerity reforms.

The two panelists, Louise Boivin (feminist researcher affiliated with several research groups) and Anne Renée Gravel (professor at the Université TÉLUQ) presented troubling findings, as well as tangible ways to get closer to the field, as much in the health network as in childcare centres.

A structural devaluation of care work

Louise Boivin reminded us that care work, whether paid (like that of healthcare workers) or not (families, informal caregivers), is historically devalued. This devaluation is rooted in three systems of power:

• Patriarchy: by assigning women to this natural and underpaid work;
• Capitalism: by making a profit from free or low-paid work;
• Neocolonialism: by exploiting migrant workers, often without rights.

She explained how the reforms from the 1980s to today applied industrial managerial logic to human care: performance, indicators, centralization, hierarchization and privatization. It led to a loss of meaning, a deterioration of working conditions and a threat to the quality of care.

Childcare centres: rationalization, work overload and loss of meaning

Anne Renée Gravel presented the effects of reforms on childcare centres where you see:

• profitability requirements (constant presence of children, professional qualification rates);
• work intensification (abolition of support positions, overload, addition of related tasks);
• a loss of meaning in the job.

These transformations, exacerbated during the pandemic, had an impact on mental health, education quality, and professional autonomy. The current public management logic, inspired by the private sector, creates a division between workers’ values and imposed objectives.

Reasserting the value of care: a feminist, union and societal issue

The panelists all agreed on one message: care work is at the heart of a fair, humane and inclusive society. It must be recognized, valued, and protected.

Among the solutions brought up:

• Fighting against the commodification of care: restore power to workers, defend public services, regulate private agencies and platforms.
• Practicing participative unionism: involve workers in decisions, build alliances, propose alternative models (e.g., preventive CLSCs, humane management).
• Showing recognition for invisible skills: emotional, relational, rooted in the ethics of care.

A mobilized FIQ

The panel confirmed the importance of feminist and union battles in resisting reforms that distance care from their primary vocation. The FIQ will continue to respond through solidarity, action, and the strong voice of healthcare professionals. Because recognizing care means recognizing those who provide it.