TKW Consulting

Family child care providers expect to join union.
After three years of organizing and lobbying, the results of a vote to unionize some 6,000 family child care providers is expected today.

If the election is successful, Maryland will join 10 states, including Illinois, Washington and Oregon, that have unionized since 2005, and family child care providers in the state will become members of the Service Employees International Union Local 500, or SEIU.

SEIU Local 500 represents roughly 10,000 education, government and community services workers in Washington D.C. and Maryland.

Unionizing the state's family child care providers could affect up to 70,000 children in Maryland, said SEIU spokeswoman Sadie Crabtree. The election has been going on for two weeks.

"We expect the announcement is going to be positive," Crabtree said. Child care crisis

Maryland has lost nearly 3,000 licensed family child care providers since 1994, SEIU said. According to the union, Maryland providers earn an average $15,840 a year, after subtracting operating expenses.

In Frederick, said Shannon Aleshire, the director of Frederick County's Child Care
Choices, the organization is losing providers every month, despite the county's population explosion. Nine years ago, when she joined the agency, there were about 730 providers, an number that has since decreased to 500.

Aleshire thinks stiffer state regulations may have contributed to the decline, although the precise reasons why have been difficult to track.

She could not comment on unionization plans.

The dearth of providers in the state has made it hard for working parents to find someone to cheaply take care of their children.

"Child care has become a crisis for children, parent and providers," said Madie Green, a District Heights provider for more than 25 years, in an SEIU statement.

"Parents are struggling to find affordable, quality child care, but a lot of providers just can't afford to keep our doors open."

Unionizing will include allowing negotiation with the state for more training opportunities, access to affordable health care, and better reimbursement from Maryland's childcare assistance program, according to the SEIU.

Opposition
The election has been opposed by the Maryland State Family Child Care Association, a non-profit organization that has represented family providers in Maryland since 1983, according to a position statement.

The association said it recognizes the benefits that union power can bring to family child care providers, but that SEIU had used high pressure recruitment tactics in which union officials had misrepresented themselves.

"However, due to SEIU's history and organizing tactics here in Maryland, we do not feel that they are the right union for Maryland's family child care providers," the statement said.

Two bills supported by SEIU seeking the right to unionize family providers had failed, the association said. The union turned to Gov. Martin O'Malley to sign an executive order authorizing the election, to whom the union had donated a "very large campaign contribution," the association's statement continues. "SEIU is not trusted in the child care community, or by many legislators," the association's statement said. "Providers should be represented by an organization that has the respect of policy makers and the early childhood community, not by SEIU," the association stated.

Executive order
On Aug. 6, O'Malley, authorizing the election through an executive order, acknowledged,
"There is a need to stabilize the family child care workforce."

Those child care providers, located throughout the state, "may not be able to effectively voice their common concerns," about participation in the Maryland Child Care Subsidy Program, regulation of child care services in the state, and challenges to the profession such as access to affordable health care, the executive order goes on to say.

The child care crisis we are experiencing now is nothing compared to what will happen if providers are forced to pay union fees. That is what the union has been lobbying for for the past 3 years or more. If SEIU has it's way, self-employeed childcare providers who accept clients that use state subsidies to pay for childcare will see that state subsidy check reduced by the amount of the union fees, regardless of any desire to join the union or any benefits received from the union. What self-employeed person, with any understanding of business or desire to pay their own bills is going to let that happen. The result is that providers will refuse to care for low income families who receive state funds. The poorest families will not be able to find childcare so that they can go to work and work their way out of poverty. The poor stay poor. The dependance on welfare is increased and everyone else in the state pays for it.

Sorry. Affordable Daycare and Union just don't go togather. How is this supposed to help the couple looking for daycare? Sounds like a ploy to add union workers more then help daycare.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 1:00 PM