Providers begin negotiating first UFT contract

Home child care providers gather with UFT and state and city Office of Family and Child Services officials to begin round one in negotiations to win their first contract – a three – year struggle that has finally brought them to the table.

At the opening of negotiations to secure a first contract for the city’s 28,000 newly organized home child care providers, UFT President Randi Weingarten stressed the need to improve the salaries and working conditions of “our children’s first teachers,” if we are to improve the learning conditions and educational opportunities of the 60,000 children in their care.

“Think about the potential here,” she said at the meeting with state and local officials of the Office of Children and Family Services on Feb. 29 at OCFS offices in Manhattan. “Think what we could do if we could align everything and lift all boats.”

After a three year struggle to get to this day, the 22 providers representing their colleagues at the negotiations were encouraged to hear OCFS Assistant Commissioner Bill Gettman say, “I’m here for the kids you take care of, for the respect you deserve for the work you do and for quality care for kids.”

As Brooklyn provider Patricia Gbayor-Johnson indicated, “I’m about change and, as long as we’re moving forward, I’m happy. Shirley Middleton, a veteran provider who was not paid correctly for two years and when she finally got a check for $6,000 it bounced, said, “I’ve been on the battlefield for more than 30 years.”

ACORN member Nila Edwards noted that she was “glad to be in the room because I have always been an advocate for social and economic justice.”

Citing the poverty level status of providers under current pay rates — many earn less than $2 and hour for their 10 and 11 hour work days — Weingarten proposed a two step restructuring of the complex market rate formula now in effect. Step one calls for basing pay on the New York State minimum wage and step two calls for replacing payment based on the age of the child — a providers’ pay goes down when the infant they are caring for reaches 18 months — with a single schedule including weekly, daily, part-day and hourly rates.

Weingarten called the age differential “perverse” because it acts as an incentive to not keep a child in care as they get older. “Replacing infant care with the preschool needs of a developing toddler is equally, if not more demanding, particularly because we understand the importance of high quality early childhood experience to lifelong learning success.” She made the point that teachers, whether they teach the very young or high schools students, are paid at the same rate.

Providers check the contract proposals that will be submitted by the UFT as the talks get underway

To eliminate the present bureaucratic and complex payment practices that have caused missed payments, incorrect payments, late payments and bouncing checks, the union’s proposal also calls for on-time, semi-monthly payments with clear itemized plain language check stubs.

As “the first link in the chain of education that a child receives,” Weingarten described how eagerly providers have taken advantage of the high quality professional training offered by the UFT. “Our Saturday classes are solidly packed,” she pointed out. “Providers are serious about becoming really skilled as teachers.”

Citing the success of the career ladder instituted for UFT paraprofessionals, the union president proposed creation of a UFT Training and Education Fund to provide a variety of education programs at low or no cost at time and places convenient for the care givers as the basis for establishing pay differentials.

The UFT’s proposals also called for changes to simplify and clarify a confusing maze of rules and regulations resulting from the involvement of so many agencies in the day to day supervision of the over burdened providers. A Labor Management Team made up of state and union designated participants would review all current rules and make recommendation for change within a year and consider subsequent regulations before they are implemented. In closing remarks,

In closing remarks, Weingarten emphasized the link between improving the working conditions of the city’s providers and improving the learning conditions and educational opportunities of the hundred of thousands of children from low income families.

In his opening remarks, Assistant Commissioner Gettman agreed on the need for higher pay and more efficiency in paying providers and for untangling the maze of regulations and providing professional development and. acknowledged that low income families would not be able to go to work without providers. He reminded everyone in the room that economic and regulatory issues before Congress and the state legislature will come into play as negotiations proceed and called on the union for “your advocacy and help” on the political front.

Both sides agreed to set up technical committees and submit formal proposals before the next meeting.

In the flurry of excitement following the meeting, Victor Bernola commented, “The other side looks as if they are ready to work with us.” Optimism too from Clemencia Aquino, who observed, “They were responsive and positive.” Tammi Miller found at “reassuring to hear from the other side that the key point is respect for providers and improving the quality of care.”