Hundreds of child care providers rallied outside Gov. George Pataki's Midtown office yesterday to urge the governor to sign legislation allowing them to join a union and to negotiate with the state. þþThe bill was passed unanimously in the Senate last month and by a wide margin in the Assembly. It has not yet reached the governor's office. A spokesman for the governor said Mr. Pataki would not comment until he saw the specifics of the bill. þþRandi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said the effort to sign up the day care workers was the union's biggest organizing campaign since the late 1960's, when it helped to unionize paraprofessionals. þþShe said the campaign, begun last summer, had taken off immediately ÿbecause this predominantly female, minority work force is as in need of a union as anyone I've ever seen.ÿ More than 6,000 of the 34,000 child care workers statewide have already signed union cards, she said. þþÿA lot of these folks have never taken a day off,ÿ Ms. Weingarten said. ÿThey don't have health care. They don't have a concept of what it would mean to have a pension nest egg.ÿþþThe union has also been trying to help workers who are paid by the state for caring for children from low-income families to receive notice from the state about pay and other labor issues and to be able to negotiate grievances when the state is slow in making payments. þþA recent study by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now found that day care workers earned an average annual wage of $19,933. þþBridget Carruth, a child care provider in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, became involved in the union efforts last summer when organizers knocked on her door. þþÿI signed up immediately because we don't get paid enough, and there are a lot of problems with the system,ÿ said Ms. Carruth, who has been working in day care for 15 years. Asked whether she believed the governor would sign the legislation, she quickly answered: ÿHe better. I'm not kidding — we need this.ÿþþLast year, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois signed an executive order giving independent day care workers the right to unionize and to bargain with state government as if they were state employees. Weeks later, day care workers overwhelmingly voted to unionize. þþSince then, Washington State and Oregon have approved legislation allowing day care workers to organize.þþÿIt would be nice if New York State was the groundbreaker,ÿ Ms. Weingarten said. ÿIt helps that Illinois started this and other states are following suit.ÿþþShe said that persuading the governor to sign the legislation would be ÿan uphill battleÿ but that he should recognize the issue as an important one for working parents as well as day care workers. ÿWe want to lift their professional standards and their pay,ÿ she said, referring to the day care providers.þ
Source: NY Times
