UFT Gets Okay For Home-Care Union Election

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

The New York State Employment Relations Board (SERB) last week certified that the United Federation of Teachers can hold an election for home day-care workers to vote on whether to join the union.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: `A critical milestone.'

The UFT and the community group ACORN filed for election in May, delivering 12,000 union cards to SERB from the approximately 28,000 workers who provide city-subsidized child care for low-income parents. The union needed 30 percent, or 8,400 votes, to trigger an election. SERB must now set an election date, with the vote conducted by mail ballot.

Bread-and-Butter Issues

Providers involved with the campaign cited low salaries and a lack of health benefits, paid vacation and a pension plan as their reason for favoring a union. A 2006 study showed that the average annual wage for family providers was less than $20,000.

"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 in a statement. "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."

The UFT and ACORN have been working to unionize the providers for about two years. Governor Spitzer in early May signed an executive order that allowed the more-than 50,000 providers across the state to organize. The Civil Service Employees Association is organizing providers in the rest of the state.

Last week, CSEA was certified to represent 7,000 group family providers. The UFT and ACORN hope to launch a get-out-the-vote effort in late August. If the campaign is successful, it would be the largest group of public sector workers to join a union since the 1960s.