UNION YES!

by Dorothy Callaci
November 1, 2007

The city’s 28,000 home child care providers have voted overwhelmingly to become part of the UFT in the largest successful organizing drive in the last half century.

Cheering, chanting and waving placards announcing “We Won,” providers could hardly contain their joy and enthusiasm at the press conference announcing their historic victory on Oct. 24 at UFT headquarters.

“With this vote, the providers have taken control of their own destiny and by voting for the UFT they have embarked on a path of a better future for themselves, their families and the families and children they serve,” UFT President Randi Weingarten said. “This victory also demonstrates the vibrancy and strength of the city’s labor movement and what can be accomplished when community groups like ACORN and labor work together.” Providers celebrate their union victory

Landslide vote

According to the New York State Employment Relations Board, which tallied the secret ballots mailed in between Sept. 5 and Oct. 15, the providers voted 8,382 to 96 to unionize and to be represented by the UFT in contract talks with the state.

Weingarten described the providers’ two-year struggle to win union representation as “a quest for economic respect for a group of workers who have been exploited for far too long. They need an economic, educational and political voice and the UFT intends to make sure they are heard.”

City providers have long worked in the shadows caring for children from poor families, earning less than poverty level wages — averaging $19,000 a year — and having meager or no health benefits, paid vacation or sick days. The majority are minority women and a good number are immigrants who are not fluent in English. They all work out of their homes and face a complex web of rules and regulations imposed by city and state agencies.

Dinah Yisrael, a 22-year veteran provider from Brooklyn, said, “I voted yes for union representation because I was determined not to be voiceless and underpaid any longer.” She described five months without pay — because of a bureaucratic snafu — that resulted in eviction from her home, but she noted that she got back pay for those months of work in three days when the union went to bat for her.

Another provider, who declined to give her name, summed up the vote’s significance for her: “Now I can get teeth and get rid of my 99-cent glasses.”

Preparing kids for school

Nat LaCour, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, rallies the crowd Citing the win as “a major breakthrough,” Nat LaCour, the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, called providers “pile drivers” laying the early education foundation for the children in their charge. He predicted “a new era in which kids will be better prepared to start school, crime will go down, the drop-out rate will fall, and graduations will go up.”

LaCour also reminded providers that with their vote they are now part of the national 1.4 million-member AFT, the 600,000-member state union NYSUT and the 160,000-member UFT, the largest union local in the nation. With the 28,000 new members, the UFT’s ranks will grow to 188,000 people.

Bertha Lewis, executive director of ACORN, which worked hand in hand with the UFT in the two-year grassroots organizing drive, called their joint efforts “one of the first genuine collaborations between a community organization and a major labor union.”

That partnership, she added, “shows that great things can be accomplished when progessive labor groups and community organizations work together.”

Within days of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s May 11 executive order granting the right to unionize to the 60,000 providers across the state, the UFT submitted 12,000 cards signed by city providers to SERB saying they wanted the UFT to represent them. Home child care providers had not been able to unionize prior to that because they were considered independent contractors under state law. In 2006, then-Gov. George Pataki vetoed widely supported bipartisan legislation that would have granted organizing rights to the providers.

“This marks a great day for labor, for low-income workers, for low-income families and for women,” said NYSUT President Dick Ianuzzi. Referring to the Pataki veto, he added, “I was proud to stand with you when we were told we cannot do this and I am proud to stand with you today when the voices of thousands of city day-care providers have been heard.”

Invest now or pay later?

Weingarten said that anything the UFT can do to improve services and working conditions for providers will result in huge long-term benefits for the children in their care. She cited a study that estimates a $7 to $17 saving for every dollar invested today in early childhood education through reduced special education needs, lower incarceration rates and reduced welfare and unemployment costs.

“We are the children’s first teachers,” said provider Tammie Miller, who cares for children in her home in the Kensington section of Brooklyn. “We represent hope in their lives just as the UFT represents hope in our lives. Without a union there was no hope for us. Being in a union was just a dream at one point, and now it’s here.”

Acknowledging the scores of political, community, clergy and labor officials who helped in the two-year struggle for recognition, many of whom attended the press conference to offer their congratulations, Weingarten said, “It takes a village to do this.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, “This is a victory for New York City families whose children will now benefit from providers who have access to professional development, curriculum and training.”

Weingarten indicated that the next step will involve surveying the 28,000 providers to determine their contract priorities, goals and professional needs before seeking to begin formal negotiations with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

“This is the UFT,” she noted. “We always go in well-prepared.”

UFT Vice President Michelle Bodden, who helped coordinate the campaign with organizing director Fran Streich, brought the press conference to a close. “We should take a moment to savor this victory and congratulate the providers for taking this bold step toward their empowerment,” she said.