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In the largest addition of unaffiliated workers in the history of the AFT, 28,000 child care workers have voted overwhelmingly for representation by the AFT-affiliated United Federation of Teachers in New York City. The organizing drive was the most extensive in nearly 50 years in the nation's largest city.
According to the New York State Employment Relations Board (SERB), which on Oct. 23 tallied secret ballot cards mailed in between Sept. 5 and Oct. 15, the child care workers voted 8,382 to 96 to form a union that will be represented in contract talks by the UFT, which represents the city's 110,000 public school educators. A simple majority was required for the UFT to become the collective bargaining representative.
The organizing campaign was a joint project of the UFT and the community group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which together collected more than 12,000 signatures from daycare providers this summer in support of a union election. This followed New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's executive order in May allowing providers—who are among the lowest-paid workers in the region—to form a union. The providers covered by the order are those who receive government subsidies to watch, care for and educate children from low-income families in preschool and after-school settings.
AFT secretary treasurer Nat LaCour, who appeared at a UFT press conference announcing the vote, hailed the victory and UFT's organizing campaign, noting that the inclusion of the child care providers in the AFT marks the largest addition of workers unaffiliated with any other union or organization in the AFT's history.
"There is an old saying in early childhood education: 'Parents can't afford to pay, workers can't afford to stay, there's got to be a better way.' Today I believe that the UFT and ACORN have created that elusive better way," LaCour said. "Together they have blazed a trail for a new form of community-focused union organizing that recognizes child care workers' right to fair wages, children's right to the best early learning experiences possible, and parents' right to affordable and readily available high-quality care."
The vote caps a two-year campaign to secure an economic and political voice for home child care providers, said UFT president Randi Weingarten (see press release), adding that they "share a bond with teachers in that they help educate and care for thousands of our city's youngest children. We are grateful for this vote of confidence, and we are committed to fighting for their interests and the interests of the kids they serve and integrating the providers into our union family."
The UFT and ACORN had worked to unionize the providers in what had been the largest organizing drive in New York City since the UFT became a union in 1960.
October 24, 2007
