We've heard from several providers that there is talk in the childcare world about unionizing childcare providers. Some providers seem to be for this, while others are against it. Here's an interesting article about what is happening with childcare unions in Iowa ....
Vilsack's Order Paves Way for Union
The Associated Press
Tuesday 17 January 2006
Gov. Tom Vilsack has issued an executive order allowing child care providers to form a union and negotiate for better wages, health care and incentives for training, union officials said.
Vilsack issued the order Monday, allowing more than 13,000 in-home daycare providers in Iowa to begin collective bargaining.
"We need to make a comprehensive commitment to early childhood in order to uphold our responsibility to ensure every child in Iowa reaches his or her full potential," Vilsack said in a statement.
The reason providers have pressured the governor for help is that many workers care for children from low-income families whose child-care costs are subsidized by state and federal funds.
Child care providers now have to decide which union will represent them.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees/Child Care Providers Together and the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, have been vying to represent the group.
About 5,000 providers, certified through AFSCME, have signed support cards with the union, spokesman Joe Lawrence said Tuesday. Some of those providers will formally petition the state for recognition on Tuesday at the Iowa Mediation Services, Inc., he said.
"Without Iowa child care providers, Iowa parents couldn't go to work," Dan Homan, president of AFSCME Iowa Council 61, said in a statement. "Hats off to registered providers for winning this important victory for families across the state."
SEIU has said it wants to represent all 13,000 child care providers, both certified and otherwise.
Iowa Mediation Services will conduct a review of the support cards to see which union has the most backing from child care providers, said Mike Thompson, executive director.
Vilsack's order follows a similar deal for providers in Illinois, where workers have unionized and received a 35 percent average increase in their daily rates over the life of the 39-month contract.
Workers would be able to demand an even higher rate increase by taking training courses, and they'll have access to health care coverage in the final year of the deal.
The contract agreed upon last month, which covers 49,000 in-home child care providers, will cost the state of Illinois $250 million and increase child-care expenses by $70 million.
Information on the impact of the executive order in Iowa was not immediately available.
Currently in Iowa, child care providers have received a state subsidy that ranges from $7.36 to $11.25 for a half day, or five hours of care, depending on the child age and the provider's education and experience.
In Illinois, AFSCME and SEIU battled over who would represent the child care workers. AFSCME was forced to drop its campaign by the AFL-CIO, whose rules govern both unions. The AFL-CIO determined that SEIU had been working to unionize the state-subsidized child care workers longer, so AFSCME was forced to stop campaigning.
A telephone message left with the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, on Tuesday morning wasn't immediately returned.
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