40,000 Michigan Child Care Workers Join AFSCME, UAW

by James Parks, Dec 13, 2006

With the backing of a strong joint union partnership, some 40,000 home-based child care providers in Michigan formed a union with AFSCME and the UAW. Members of the new union, Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM), met yesterday in Detroit to prepare for their first-ever bargaining session with the state to strengthen quality care and service delivery to children and families.

CCPTM is the first union of, by and for the state’s child care providers. Low wages, lack of health care and no paid vacation are reasons many of the home-based providers are organizing.

In a statement, Pam Stewart, a child care provider in Benton Harbor and a member of the CCPTM bargaining committee, says:

It’s all about the children. The best way to give children in Michigan the best possible care is to make sure providers have a voice, because we work our hearts out for these children every day.

The victory shows the close connection between politics and workers’ freedom to form a union. The child care workers were able to join the union because Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), who was re-elected with strong working family support, earlier this year signed a measure to allow union representation for Michigan’s child care providers. In November, the Michigan Employment Relations Commission certified that a majority of home-based child care providers had chosen to join a union.

Michigan’s home-based child care providers make as little as $9,000 per year and state   reimbursement rates have not been raised in 10 years. The providers are paid through state and federal funds, including the Child Care and Development Fund, a national block grant program that provides child care assistance to help low-income parents enter and remain in the workforce.

Michigan parents, such as Jomita Reeves, a mother of two from Detroit, understand the value of the child care workers belonging to a union. In the union’s statement, Reeves says:

When I drop my child off in the morning on my way to work, I need to know they’re with someone who is well-qualified, dependable and can provide a caring environment. If a union can improve training and reduce turnover, I’m all for it.

The successful campaign in Michigan is part of a national movement among child care providers, who have recently won representation rights in a number of states, including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

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