Editorials
Another promise kept
May 24, 2007 5:24 PM
“I dunno — did Consumer Reports test any of these?”
A two-year-long struggle for home day-care providers to organize into a union has cleared a huge hurdle. On May 11, Gov. Spitzer issued an executive order, making good on his campaign pledge to allow the providers to unionize.
Given that go-ahead, the process will now go forward with the goal that the state will authorize an election that will allow the UFT to become the bargaining agent for some 28,000 providers in the city. Finally they will begin to negotiate for a decent wage and for some of the job benefits many others still take for granted, like health insurance, sick pay, vacations, etc.
All workers should have the right to organize but these days even getting that right is a struggle. These providers, almost all ethnic-minority women, were particularly in need of uniting into a powerful group because as individuals they lacked the clout to negotiate more than a paltry wage scale and no benefits. Most of them earned less than $19,000 a year in a city with one of the highest cost of living rates in the country.
A massive organizing drive in the city by the UFT and its partner, ACORN, the active community group, was started in May 2005. Legislation was needed to allow the providers to organize because technically they are independent contractors — and such legislation was introduced last spring. It passed by overwhelming numbers in both the Assembly and the Republican-controlled Senate.
Then Gov. Pataki vetoed it.
Among the reasons he cited was his fear that it “could have a detrimental impact on the delivery of child care services” because it might jeopardize $315 million in federal Child Care and Development grants.
Pataki’s explanation was spurious because there were no problems when providers achieved collective bargaining rights in a number of other states including Illinois, Washington, Iowa, New Jersey and Oregon. State legislatures are also considering similar bills in Massachusetts and Maryland. More likely, Pataki was flashing his conservative colors at a time when he was still hoping to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Senate voted 57 to 4 to override the veto. Unfortunately, in the crush of last-minute business before adjournment for the year, the Assembly did not have time to take up an override.
Enter gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer.
He promised that if elected he would rectify the situation in a way that did not require the new Legislature to go through the entire process once more; he promised to issue an executive order to allow the providers to organize — and the week before last he did.
The executive order gives providers the right to be represented by a union and to bargain collectively even though they continue to operate individually and are not state employees. There are certain limitations because of the providers’ unique status, but the bottom line is they can organize and agreements they reach with government agencies are enforceable under state law.
This is a huge achievement for home-based child-care providers — who may, in fact, be a child’s first teachers. Congratulations and we look forward to welcoming you to the UFT family of professionals.
