For Immediate Release
State Certifies NYC Home Day Care Workers’ Right July 27, 2007
Jul 27, 2007 3:37 PM
State Certifies NYC Home Day Care Workers’ Right to Vote to Join a Union
After counting cards it received from more than 12,000 New York City home day care workers in May, the New York State Employment Relations Board (SERB) has certified that the United Federation of Teachers and the community group ACORN have surpassed the margin required for the workers to hold an election to join a union.
“This is a critical milestone in the journey to get New York City’s 28,000 home day care providers the respect and wages they need and give the children in their watch the care they deserve,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten, adding, “Now the teachers’ union will move to the next phase of our campaign to become the New York City providers’ elected labor representative and build the organization necessary for effective representation.”
“We are eager to take this monumental next step with an election that will allow day care providers to join a union so they can get the living wage they deserve for the important work they do with children,” said Bertha Lewis, executive director of NY ACORN. She added, “These providers are professionals and should be treated accordingly, and having a union to fight for them will help ensure it.”
“The next step is working out a representation election calendar, which will take place under SERB’s auspices,” said UFT Vice President Michelle Bodden.
The cards were filed on May 17, less than a week after Governor Eliot Spitzer signed an executive order allowing the providers, who are among the lowest-paid workers in the region, to form a union. The UFT wants to represent the 28,000 providers in New York City, and signatures from 30 percent of the total group – fewer than 9,000 – were needed to trigger an election. The Civil Service Employees Association will organize day care providers in the rest of the state.
SERB representatives conducted a count of the city providers’ votes between July 12 and July 19 and determined that the required 30 percent margin was surpassed with 8,860 providers voting to hold an election. As a result of the verification, SERB will schedule an election, tally the mailed in ballots and declare the results. The UFT and ACORN hope to embark upon a get-out-the-vote effort involving advertisements in local newspapers, rallies and door-to-door campaigning by the end of August.
The UFT and ACORN have been working to unionize the providers for about two years in what has been the largest organizing drive in New York in decades. Gov. Spitzer’s order allows the more than 50,000 providers across the state to organize.
New York is the eighth state to let home-based providers unionize. They receive government subsidies to watch, care for and educate children from low-income families in pre-school and after-school settings. They provide meals and snacks, help children with reading, learning colors and numbers, help with homework, direct safe play and change diapers.
A 2006 ACORN study showed that the average annual wage for family and group family providers in New York City is $19,933. The federal poverty line for a family of four in 2004 was $18,850. The providers have no health benefits, pension plan or paid vacations.
