A day-care centre at Simon Fraser University will launch full-scale job action at 7:30 a.m. Monday, prompting more than 250 families to look for alternate child care.

The B.C. Government Employees Union, which presents the 67 early childhood educators, said the union has done everything to avoid job action, but a contract could not be negotiated, despite mediated talks earlier this week.

"We simply have no other option," union president George Heyman said Wednesday. "Our members are not indentured slaves and they won't work under any conditions, simply because they value the children and the learning conditions of the children to whom they provide services."

Heyman said the top wage at the day-care centre is just over $16 per hour, but employers have refused a union proposal for a 2.5 per cent raise.

Pat Frouws, executive director of the SFU Childcare Society, said the provincial government turned down her plea for more funding for the SFU Children's Centre.

"We just feel it's an ideological decision they've made. They have a $4 billion surplus, and they still do have money from the feds that they could use for this purpose," she said.

David Murphy, who teaches communications at the university, said he hasn't been able to find alternate care for his 2_-year-old daughter, Lyra.

"It's going to be a great disruption of our community up here," he said.