Every day, tens of thousands of working families rely on family child care providers to care for and to educate their young children in a safe, home-based environment. After eight years of campaigning for dignity and respect for their work, family child care providers now have a voice in Massachusetts's early childhood education.

Last week, family child care providers delivered over 1,900 union authorization cards to the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations (DLR) for certification. On Wednesday, the DLR certified SEIU Local 509 as the official bargaining representative of 3,500 family child care providers in Massachusetts. The certification of these cards makes the 3500 providers one of the largest groups of workers to form a union in recent years.

"We are often the first educators that a child will ever have, it's important that we have a voice in early childhood education in Massachusetts," said Celina Reyes a family child care provider from Lawrence. "We're overjoyed that our union has been officially recognized, and we look forward to working with the Department of Early Education and Care to improve the quality of early childhood education in our state."

In July, Governor Patrick signed HB 3986, An Act Relative to improving quality in early education and care by family child care providers, that granted family child care providers the opportunity to collectively bargain with the state. Since the legislation's passage, providers from Hyannis to Pittsfield have been organizing and working together to build their union of family child care providers.

"Family child care providers are vital to helping working families re-enter or stay in the workforce," said Susan Tousignant, a rehabilitation counselor with the Mass Rehab Commission and president of SEIU Local 509. "We're very happy to welcome them into the SEIU family fighting for good jobs and better communities."

Cross-posted from SEIU.org

"I don't see myself retiring anytime soon and I'm probably going to work until I'm 70--if not until I die," said Amparo Moreno, a California child care provider, in an interview about retirement.

Until recently, these were the only retirement options for Moreno and millions of other child care providers who work for years without raises, medical insurance, retirement benefits or even sick days. Now, they have another option.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sept. 28 a bill to create the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, the nation's first state-administered retirement savings program for private-sector workers.

The American dream of rising from the bottom to the top is actually harder to do in America than in Western European countries. The new international study confirms what working Americans and the Occupy movement have experienced first-hand. In America, the rich are getting richer--and they're passing that advantage on to their children at the expense of everyone else.

The report offers one glimmer of hope: quality preschool education gives children of low-income parents a step up into the middle class.

According to the report's findings, "Preschool exposure can have lasting positive effects....... especially for low- and middle-income children."

SEIU members have lobbied congress, written letters to legislators, and worked to elect leaders who would support early education funding for the past several decades, including efforts during the past two years that have resulted in maintaining recent increases in Head Start funding in the 2012 budget.

"Remember that the country's future depends much on us, the early age educators," said Tami Mendez, a child care provider from Massachusetts. "One of the children in my day care could be the president, or a principal, or a great citizen, husband and father."

As for the sobering news about the challenges of rising out of poverty, SEIU has been waging a "Fight for a Fair Economy" for good jobs for the rest of us.

Unmentioned--and perhaps unexamined in the study--were how union membership and quality job training help low-wage workers move into the middle class.

Child care providers in 16 states have formed unions to address this very issue, and providers in Massachusetts like Tami Mendez are now working through their union to expand child care provider programs.

The full report from Pew's Economic Mobility Project can be found here [pdf.]

Hartford - Connecticut's seniors, people with disabilities, and young children applauded Governor Dannel P. Malloy yesterday for signing an executive order that will improve the quality and stability of care they receive.

The order, hailed as a first step toward solving workforce shortages, gives family child care providers and personal care attendants (PCAs) the opportunity to create organizations to be their voice in advocating for improvements.

Berkeley - A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education finds that the $5.6 billion early childcare and education (ECE) industry supports $11.1 billion in economic output in California.

The study, "Economic Impacts of Early Care and Education in California," by Jenifer MacGillvary and Laurel Lucia, explores the economic effects of the ECE industry in California, which they say benefits the state economy as well as the children who receive care.

My name is Fabiola Silva and I'm a Child Care Provider in the Germantown Montgomery County area, early one morning, I received a telephone call from SEIU Local 500 my union, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Amazingly, I was advised that I was invited to participate in a meeting with First Lady, Michelle Obama. After the call ended, I think that I found myself stunned that this opportunity was presented to me and it really left me with many questions in my mind about what was going to happen during this meeting. I knew that I was extremely excited.

Nancy Rios and Ramon Salazar, who both work at a Panda Express restaurant, used to have a hard time coming up with the $250-300 a week that it costs to have a babysitter watch their three children in Oxnard, CA.

Then someone told Rios and Salazar that they could apply for the CalWorks child care program for low-income working families. Through CalWorks, caring for their children isn't only more affordable, but they both agreed that it made an immediate, positive difference in their children's lives, one they could see in only three months.

"They call it a school," Salazar said. "They have all the things a preschool would have."

"They've been speaking more clearly, too," Rios said, attributing the children's improved language skills to their interaction with the other kids.

On Monday, November 15, 203 workers at the Head Start program at Action for a Better Community (ABC) voted in an overwhelming majority to join with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United.

The workers started forming their Union in September as a way to both improve classroom conditions for the children they serve as well as working conditions for themselves. Regina Brown, a Teacher Assistant, said, "We deserve what is best for us so that we can do the best for the children we serve."

The vote as counted by the National Labor Relations Board was 127 for SEIU to 49 for No Union.

Kelvin Jones, a teacher assistant, echoed the sentiment of his coworkers before the election: "I have been employed for twenty years and have always just had to accept whatever changes management made. No longer do I want to let others make decisions that affect my life. I want a voice, it's time for change!"

Head Start teachers at ABC help approximately 1,500 children from infants to four years of age develop reading and math skills to be successful in grade-school. They lead programs at five centers (1772 Clifford Avenue, 1150 Hudson Avenue, 640 Jefferson Avenue, 700 North Street and 49 Stone Street). Home visitors reach out to families in Monroe and Ontario Counties.

Teachers, teacher assistants, childcare assistants, family developers, parent advocates, health intake specialists, nurse, substitutes, cooks, and cook assistants at ABC are all now members of SEIU.

Photo, from left to right: Ana Marzan, Estella Lundy, Clementina Cintron

Gloria Clemens had been a nurse for 12 years and liked her job in a pediatrician's office. She was also the mother of six, with a seventh child on the way.

Clemens liked her job but couldn't afford the child care that would have let her keep it. So 24 years ago, she started a family child care business in her own home that meets the needs of other working families.

Still going strong, she and her two aides work 10 hour days caring for 11 children.

Setting An Example

Clemens serves a range of families, and watches three children whose mother, Anna*, qualifies for state assistance with child care while she's going to school. She said the program, CalWorks, was good because it helped parents become self-reliant and set a good example for their children.

Video from ABC Action News, Tampa Bay, FL: