Friday, February 01, 2008
Commentary on the Unionization of Child Care Providers...
I received an e-mail last week from a reader stating that she had just received a visit from the SEIU (Kids First) union rep and asked me my opinion of unions for family child care providers. Since then, I have been asked this question a couple more times. I have decided to print my original reply here. Below is the e-mail that I sent back to her...
First, quite simply, I don’t see how they would benefit me. I provide care for very few children/families who utilize sliding fee arrangements. This seems to be the only area that a union could possibly coerce more funding.
Remember that just because a union may be able to attain rate increases (and there certainly is no guarantee of that no matter what unions reps promise you), it is questionable that states will increase any overall funding. I suspect that if rates increase, overall funding will stay much the same and fewer families will qualify for assistance.
If the pool of funds does not increase, it will in reality shrink… because with unions come union dues. I suspect that dues will automatically come out of the reimbursement checks that are sent out to the child care providers. Even if, by some miracle, this does not reduce the overall pools of funds available for provider reimbursement, it certainly eliminates any freedom of choice that a child care provider, as an independent business person, may have.
The last comment is a deal-breaker for me. My child care is my business. I am an independent business owner. I run my business the way I want. I don’t want to be “forced” to join a union (or any other organization). If I want to make more money, I increase my rates. While it is true that it may be difficult to raise your rates, it certainly is still possible. Unions were founded on the concept of giving a voice for workers with the business owners. In this case, I am the business owner and I am the worker and I can communicate my needs and desires with myself just fine. To unionize independent family child care providers seems to me to be a twisted concept. If I were more cynical, I might think the whole concept is simply geared to raise funds for the unions (who are not really altruistic, but rather “for profit” entities).
Where is your bargaining power? Would you or could you go on strike? Would you refuse to provide care for your families if the government doesn’t increase reimbursement fees? I may be wrong, but I don’t think you can legally decide to strike against just the poorer families. If you do strike, I predict that you would lose some of your better clients. I realize that no one is talking about striking child care providers, but it seems that without bargaining power, the unions promises are empty ones. Heck, if you pay me monthly dues, I will promise to be vocal for you and make an effort to attain you more money…
Finally, we can’t forget that the people the unions are trying to get more money from, is the government… and we are the government. It would almost be like me giving myself a raise (which as a business owner I could already do). I know that comment is a bit simplistic, but if we really want to change the way things are happening in our government, I feel the best way to accomplish this is politically with our votes, not with a union. If you want to be more active and more vocal, let me know and I will get you connected with your local Child Care Works advocate.
Sorry, that this reply has ended up so lengthy, but I felt that I should explain all the reasons that I do not have a positive opinion of unions for child care providers. I know that there are plenty that will disagree with me, but this is, after all, my opinion.
I’ve discussed many of these things before and you can check out some of the past articles and comments about unions by searching my blog at http://tkwconsulting.blogspot.com/search?q=unions
Thanks for asking and thanks for reading.
I received an e-mail last week from a reader stating that she had just received a visit from the SEIU (Kids First) union rep and asked me my opinion of unions for family child care providers. Since then, I have been asked this question a couple more times. I have decided to print my original reply here. Below is the e-mail that I sent back to her...
******************
I normally don’t discuss unions that often, because like politics and religion, it can elicit some emotional responses and opinions. However, since you asked “my opinion” I will tell you what I think and try to put into perspective why…
First, quite simply, I don’t see how they would benefit me. I provide care for very few children/families who utilize sliding fee arrangements. This seems to be the only area that a union could possibly coerce more funding.
Remember that just because a union may be able to attain rate increases (and there certainly is no guarantee of that no matter what unions reps promise you), it is questionable that states will increase any overall funding. I suspect that if rates increase, overall funding will stay much the same and fewer families will qualify for assistance.
If the pool of funds does not increase, it will in reality shrink… because with unions come union dues. I suspect that dues will automatically come out of the reimbursement checks that are sent out to the child care providers. Even if, by some miracle, this does not reduce the overall pools of funds available for provider reimbursement, it certainly eliminates any freedom of choice that a child care provider, as an independent business person, may have.
The last comment is a deal-breaker for me. My child care is my business. I am an independent business owner. I run my business the way I want. I don’t want to be “forced” to join a union (or any other organization). If I want to make more money, I increase my rates. While it is true that it may be difficult to raise your rates, it certainly is still possible. Unions were founded on the concept of giving a voice for workers with the business owners. In this case, I am the business owner and I am the worker and I can communicate my needs and desires with myself just fine. To unionize independent family child care providers seems to me to be a twisted concept. If I were more cynical, I might think the whole concept is simply geared to raise funds for the unions (who are not really altruistic, but rather “for profit” entities).
Where is your bargaining power? Would you or could you go on strike? Would you refuse to provide care for your families if the government doesn’t increase reimbursement fees? I may be wrong, but I don’t think you can legally decide to strike against just the poorer families. If you do strike, I predict that you would lose some of your better clients. I realize that no one is talking about striking child care providers, but it seems that without bargaining power, the unions promises are empty ones. Heck, if you pay me monthly dues, I will promise to be vocal for you and make an effort to attain you more money…
Finally, we can’t forget that the people the unions are trying to get more money from, is the government… and we are the government. It would almost be like me giving myself a raise (which as a business owner I could already do). I know that comment is a bit simplistic, but if we really want to change the way things are happening in our government, I feel the best way to accomplish this is politically with our votes, not with a union. If you want to be more active and more vocal, let me know and I will get you connected with your local Child Care Works advocate.
Sorry, that this reply has ended up so lengthy, but I felt that I should explain all the reasons that I do not have a positive opinion of unions for child care providers. I know that there are plenty that will disagree with me, but this is, after all, my opinion.
I’ve discussed many of these things before and you can check out some of the past articles and comments about unions by searching my blog at http://tkwconsulting.blogspot.com/search?q=unions
Thanks for asking and thanks for reading.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 1:31 PM 
