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."

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.

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.

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.

A family child care provider for 6 years, Laurie Sanders of Los Angeles, CA, has "a passion for kids [and] wanted to see them in a safe environment."

Sanders, on providing good early care: "Have a daily schedule that's consistent. It helps children know what comes next and easily transition from one activity to the next."

Sanders is a former welfare recipient whose daughter got hurt while in the care of a relative. She decided to open her own child care business to keep her kids safe, and to provide that same level of care for other people's children, as well.

Right now, Sanders cares for 14 children, all long-term clients, from five months to nine years of age. Eight of those children are supported by Stage 3 funding, which could soon be lost. This would be a blow to both Sanders' business and the families who depend on it.

Sanders' advice for new parents: "Spend quality time with them, even for an hour or two. That Mommy and Me time. Kids really do need that. And I tell them to always praise their children."

"All of my parents are single mothers," Sanders said. "All of their problems so far that I've noticed are financial and transportation issues. Providing food is often an issue."

To make up for the food their mothers can't always afford, Sanders partners with the Korean American Food Service program. Depending on need and their parents' work schedules, she provides breakfast, two snacks, lunch, and occasionally dinner, for children who are with her between 8-13 hours per day.

Sanders attended the October 26th rally in Long Beach to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to extend Stage 3 child care funding. The cuts have been halted by a judge through this week.

Photo, from left to right: Laurie Sanders, Elysha Johnson and Destiny Jackson at the Long Beach rally.

Last Tuesday, Southern California family child care providers with CCPU rallied in front of the Women's Conference, held by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's first lady, Maria Shriver, to protest the governor's veto of Stage 3 child care funding for over 60,000 children. Stage 3 child care assistance is available to low-income families where the parents work and aren't receiving other public assistance. Attendees hoped their presence would encourage the governor to restore funding through the end of his term.

The next day, I spoke to rally attendees Tonia McMillian and Socorro Avitia at the SEIU offices in Los Angeles about the rally and their advocacy for child care providers and the families they serve. McMillian and Avitia then spent the evening calling fellow family child care providers to ask them to continue their political participation by volunteering in get out the vote efforts before Tuesday's elections. They hope the next governor will continue the program in years to come.

The rally was "awesome," McMillian said. "Every time I have an opportunity to get together with providers, I'm excited."

She continued her advocacy beyond the rally, McMillian said, because "there are so many more who have a voice on the phone. I want to find a way to bring them out of the shadows. I know some of them feel intimidated. I know they're worried that if they complain, some networks will drop them, and some have."

McMillian also underlined how important working to protect Stage 3 funding is to the families they serve. Cutting it, she said, "takes children out of safe, educational environments. It cuts at the families who are working, who get no cash assistance and who pay a family fee towards their child care. It just makes no sense."

Avitia expressed the same sense of urgency and concern over the outcome of the governor's race.

"If you want to buy a dress, you can wait a week, a month. For the election, we only have this weekend," Avitia said. "And if we don't get Jerry Brown in office, we might not even have a daycare anymore. The political moment won't wait for us. You have to act when the moment comes."

"People think if they vote for somebody's promises, they can go home, sit and wait and it'll happen. But I see now that we have to be there," Avitia said. "Sooner or later, we have to do this for ourselves. You can't wait for everything to be coming to you from someone else."

Avitia talked about how working with the union had prepared her to advocate for what she wanted in all stages of the political process, everything from attending a rally, to the phonebanking she did that night, to meeting with government officials in the state capital. She said she felt that she'd grown a lot as a person by working with the union, both politically and personally.

"If our organizer, and I see her like my daughter, didn't push me," Avitia said, "I wouldn't do anything. She tells me I have to go to Sacramento [to meet with state legislators.] I ask who's going to be with me. She says I'm going to be alone. And maybe I don't do the best job, but I learn. I feel like I've done something for others. I can count on them for support."

Avitia said she her political work with the union had also given her better tools to interact with her children and helped her set a good example. "When my daughters see me going to Sacramento," she said, "they're proud of me. They see me doing something with myself, not just sitting at home at 50, watching novelas."

California's working class families depend on child care subsidies that have been held up for 91 days now waiting on a state budget that may still be another week away.

The governor and the legislature can't agree to fund these services, but they're still getting regular paychecks. The same can't be said for the low-income child care providers being asked to keep working through open-ended 'delays' to their reimbursements. From the article:

"It's not a cut in services. It's a delay in provider payments," [Eloisa Mercado of Solano Family & Children's Services agency] said. "We really appreciate them to continue the services for the children."

... [Child care provider Susan] O'Mara is not sure how long she can go without getting paid. About half of the nine or 10 children she cares for daily are in the subsidized program, she said.

How many people get asked to keep doing their job on a volunteer basis when their paychecks stop coming?

If the government doesn't come through, providers are likely to go out of business. That's hard on the providers, hard on families who won't be able to find day care, hard on California families who can't afford day care:

Child care generally costs $150 to $250 per week for children under age 3. That's a steep bill for parents working at or slightly above minimum wage. For Bartels, paying out of pocket for just one baby's child care would eat nearly half of her income at her $8 per hour job, or $320 a week.

That's hard on children whose parents are already having a hard time coming up with both rent and grocery money.

Republicans in Sacramento continue to insist that cutting social spending such as child care supports for low income families is important for the state's budget. Which means that there also won't be much in the way of help if parents lose their jobs because they can't get stable child care.

California's unemployment is now the third highest in the nation. It would be hard to pick a worse time to worry more about economic abstractions

In May, early learning providers with SEIU came to DC to ask their representatives to support President Obama's budget requests for early childhood education.

They wanted the families they serve to have better access to affordable, quality child care and they made their case to Congress.

In spite of serious funding constraints, the Head Start and child care funding plans made it out of the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee only a hundred million dollars shy of the president's billion dollar requests for each program.

The bill still has to pass the full Appropriations Committee, then the House and Senate, but this is a good start. Congress has been quite wary of increasing funding for social programs this year, so any moves to provide extra help to working families need to be encouraged.

Over the coming months, it will be even more important for members, parents and community allies to embolden Congress to hold on to the gains won in this first committee vote.

"Congress is considering child nutrition reauthorization legislation this summer," said [Jim Weill, President of the Food Research and Action Center.] "This is an opportunity to reject the snide nihilism of a Rush Limbaugh and instead help children, communities and the nation's future." - FRAC release, Summer Food 2010 Report

Earlier this month, the House Education and Labor Committee held hearings on the school lunch program.

Jill Richardson wrote an extensive recap of the hearings, parts 1 and 2 can be found at La Vida Locavore.

What stood out from the first half of the hearings was the split between USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack talking about what a problem it was that schools have seen "competitive" snack foods, like candy and soda, as a needed revenue source, and conservative members of Congress wondering how the federal government can afford to provide better meals for the nation's children.

If school lunches were fully paid for, maybe schools wouldn't have to do that. It's a thought.

From the second half of the hearing, Richardson captured this related explanation of why hunger in America looks different than it does in photos of famine relief efforts in other countries:

[O]besity and hunger are two sides of the same coin. In America, hunger sometimes looks different than it did in the past. You may have a child who outwardly looks overweight but goes a day or two without food. That's because healthy food costs more than unhealthy food. Also, healthy food address BOTH issues, both hunger AND obesity. The same solution is right for both problems. - Dr. Eduardo J. Sanchez, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

This testimony was also bracketed by conservative members of Congress complaining about the cost of providing healthier food to school children whose families obviously can't afford to give them decent meals, or sometimes, any meals.

Fortunately, the Committee decided last week to pass the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act (H.R. 5504), which will improve meals in child care and school settings, by:

• funding five permanent state pilot programs so child care centers and family child care homes in those states will be able to provide an additional meal or snack.


• reducing paperwork for child nutrition programs.


• improving nutrition standards for food served in early care settings.


• funding for Farm to School programs to bring fresh, local food to school cafeterias.

The bill only offers $0.06 extra per school lunch, but that's something.

Improved school meals were among the asks made to Congress by SEIU early learning providers when they came to Capitol Hill in May. The bill still has to pass the full House, then the Senate, but this is a positive first step and everyone who worked to get Congress to act for children's nutrition has something to be proud of.

Photo: SEIU early learning professionals gather near the steps in a House office building before meeting with members of Congress. May 5th, 2010.