Child care workers are increasingly organizing to form strong unions and raise their voices in the industry. In California, child care providers won a 16-year battle for the right to unionize, highlighting the importance of unionization in saving an industry. This booklet explains the individual and professional advantages of unionization and traces the history of unionization.
Unions may not solve fundamental issues with the U.S. approach to early childhood education, as they may be seen as a nice to have rather than a public good. Attitudes supporting unions and those blaming unions for economic hardships are all swirling around them. Now is an especially good time to educate and support child care workers.
The Building a Better Early Care and Education System Act (AB 378) was signed into law by Assemblymember Monique Limón into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Strategies for forming a union include a collaborative process, measuring what is important using a syllabus rubric, deconstructing and reconstructing syllabi, and promoting diversity, removing barriers, equal opportunities, respect, celebration of differences, meeting needs, ongoing processes, overcoming exclusion, better access, and helping children get to know, recognize, and support one another as valued members of the community.
To form a union, child care providers can raise their union voice to negotiate higher reimbursement rates, paid time off, more training, and other benefits. Unionization rates vary across countries, but they tend to be lower among educators working with young children and still among those working with older siblings.
The aim of the seminar was to exchange experience on the role of trade unions in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector and to look for answers to what child care workers need to consider when considering union organizing. Community is the trade union for the education and early years workforce, representing thousands workers across the education sector.
📹 You’ve Got Early Childhood All Wrong | Haneefah Shuaibe-Peters | TEDxUnionCity
She holds a Masters in Early Childhood Education from San Francisco State University and has an extensive background in early …
What are the steps in the unionization process?
Starting a union at your workplace can be done in seven steps: talk to your coworkers, talk to a union organizer, start a committee, know your rights, sign union support cards, vote, and negotiate your contract. Unions can be started at any company, as long as you and your coworkers decide your job would benefit from union support. Unions provide a voice for employees, seeking recognition, better pay, benefits, and a more predictable work schedule. They help answer questions and serve you, ensuring a better working environment.
Is there a union for childcare workers in the US?
Child Care Providers United (CCPU-CA) is a union representing child care providers in California. Its strength lies in its unity and numbers, which allows it to win better contracts and protect rights, healthcare, and benefits. Members can access member resources through local organizations and can become or renew their membership. By providing their phone number, members agree to receive automated calling technologies and periodic text messages from SEIU, AFSCME, local unions, and CCPU-CA. They will never charge for text message alerts, but carrier message and data rates may apply.
What does unionization mean?
Leading senators are concerned that unionization of state workers could threaten their traditional five-year pay raise. Factors such as industry relocation to un-unionized areas, employers using labor law to evade unionization, and corrupt union leaders contribute to this issue. Higher unionization is not associated with higher unemployment, but retail is the largest growing industry with little unionization and little worker voice.
What union represents care workers?
UNISON, the United Kingdom’s largest union, represents care workers who are subjected to sleep-ins, inflexible rotas, zero-hours contracts, and unpaid travel time. They provide assistance and support when required. To become a member of UNISON, a fee of £1. 30 per month is required, which entitles the member to participate in the union’s campaign to reform the care sector.
How long does it take to form a union?
The US is experiencing a ‘union boom’, with unions forming rapidly and workers organizing for their rights. However, the average time for employers and new union workers to finalize their first collective bargaining agreement is 465 days. Regulations surrounding who can start a union make the process seem complicated. Online resources and tools have made it easier to develop and maintain a union, with online filing and election methods maximizing voter participation.
Unions rely on member activity and commitment, but right-to-work laws can inhibit starting a union. Starting a local chapter of an existing, nationalized, or larger regional union can make unionizing easier, as the parent network has resources to help the local union get off the ground.
How do unions work?
A union is a collective effort by workers to have a voice in their workplace, negotiating wages, benefits, health and safety, and other work-related issues. It is a democratic organization with elected leaders. Unions are essential for public service workers who care about their community and want to make a difference for their neighbors, families, and each other. By organizing as a union, workers gain the strength to make real change, and their voice is heard by all parties involved, including bosses, employees, and elected officials. By working together, unions can ensure fair treatment and respect for their members.
What are the pros and cons of unions?
Labor unions are debated in the United States, with some arguing they lead to better wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers. Critics argue that unions are antagonistic towards employers and that union contracts make it harder for companies to fire unproductive employees. Despite a decline in membership in recent decades, unions continue to advocate for workers’ rights, benefiting their members by negotiating better pay, benefits, and working conditions.
However, critics argue that union contracts increase long-term costs and decrease competitiveness. Despite these challenges, unions continue to play a significant role in advocating for workers’ rights.
What are the union tactics?
Unions can use various tactics to pressure company management into accepting their demands, including striking, picketing, and boycotting. Strikes involve workers walking away from their jobs and refusing to return until the issue is resolved. The effects of a strike can engulf parties other than employers and strikers, such as undergraduates at Yale who had to scramble to find food at local mini-markets during a 23-day strike. In the end, the workers received better pension plans.
Strikes also have consequences for workers, who don’t get paid during the strike. Unions often provide cash payments, funded by members’ dues. However, some unionized workers may not have the right to strike, such as federal employees who can be declared illegal if they jeopardize public interest.
Picketing is a tactic used by workers to inform others about a workforce on strike or to publicize unacceptable management practices. It can sometimes interrupt the daily activities of the targeted organization, as seen in the University of Hawaii’s 13-day strike in April 2001. Initially, many students headed for the beach, but soon, many worried about finishing the semester with the credits they needed to keep their lives on schedule.
What do I need to know before unionizing?
It is incumbent upon new employees to be aware of the potential risks and rewards associated with joining a union. These include the possibility of an impact on hiring practices, a compromise of individualism and autonomy, and the negotiation of employment terms.
What is the dark side of unions?
Labor unions charge dues to cover strike salaries, often spending on high salaries and luxurious headquarters. Members face less autonomy, workplace tension, and slower advancement. Teachers unions offer legal protection, advice, and discounts, but face expensive fees, lack of compensation for union activities, potential disruption in education, and lack of taxpayer representation during negotiations. Both unions provide legal protection and support, but have their own drawbacks.
📹 Early Childhood Educators Join ETFO – A Proud Union Moment
In 2010, ETFO successfully advocated for a team approach in Kindergarten that added designated early childhood educators or …
This was excellent. I run my childcare center like this. The first thing I tell parents is, I don’t teach them how to read, or memorize numbers/letters /shapes etc. I teach them how to learn. I give them the opportunity to make friends, be confident, ask questions, compromise with one another. To take care of others and basically how to be people. It works much, much better. Thank you for sharing.
Wow! I’m so glad someone understands this. I own a preschool program in my home. I have my BA in ECE and I’m so sick of people believing a successful preschooler needs to know phonics before entering Kindergarten. I always tell parents that their are very smart people in prison. Children need to learn social skills and healthy self awareness before they can be taught all the phonic sounds. It makes our jobs as teachers very challenging.
I so agree with her that Preschool is more about all the different types of play so the children can learn communication skills, social skills, motor skills, and themselves. They can barely tie their shoes or go to the bathroom at Preschool age, yet in Preschool we are forcing them to learn all these academic skills they really aren’t ready for yet. We need to let them play still and be kids before they lose this when they go to Kindergarten. I think she is awesome in what she is telling us. I just wish that her article went a bit longer to hear more of her knowledge in what Preschool should be.
Love love love love!!! As a fellow Preschool Teacher myself, I agree 100%! I tell my parents before the first day of class that if the children feel safe, loved, and connected then the learning will happen naturally and this is created when you view conflict as a teachable moment. Thank you for sharing and I wish you well.
I loved this, and then I read in the description that she is a Bay Area native like me! and went to the same school as me? I agree with everything she said, except the part about people with higher education being more likely to send their kids to preschool. People are working in grocery stores and hotels, and they need affordable, quality childcare. But that could be a different discussion. I hope I can meet her one day
This is how I teach too! Hi tell the parents of the children joining my class each year that my responsibility is to help them become successful citizens. If they can’t enter play or have conflict resolution or have empathy how do we expect them to be successful in life? I also teach them self help skills and give them opportunity to fill proud of themselves for accomplishing the tasks for every day living in every day life. I tell the parents that the letters and numbers and all of that will come in time but it’s important to have social emotional skills first!
growing up i thought that school was merely a social world divided between the joyful frolicking with friends and being harried by bullies. learning was something i did largely on my own. i feel as if my son does a lot of his learning on his own as well, on line media really facilitates self-learning. and pre-school is most assuredly better seen as a place for social skill development than “learning”
29/05/2023 You’ve Got Early Childhood All Wrong | Haneefah Shuaibe-Peters Jadi dalam article ini si speaker adalah guru tk gitu dan udah ngajar selama beberapa tahun, kemudian dia bilang katanya tk itu salah ngajarin gitu atau terlalu cepat dah, jadi dia cerita tentang pengalaman orang tua si anak yang sengaja sekolahin di tk supaya bisa ditinggal gitu dan kemudian baru kemudian bisa kerja nyari duit, terus orang orang mikirnya tk itu bagus karena bisa ngajarin banyak hal kepada anaknya tetapi ternyata menurut si speaker itu ga malah di tk kayak ga belajar tentang itu jadinya berantem. Jadi seharusnya sebagai orang tua kita ngajarin anak kita dulu bagaimana sosial bekerja, moral,empati, dll dan juga bisa mengajari anaknya menjadi seorang leader yaitu yang melakukan progress setiap hariya dan terakhir, If you want to know how you contribute to society, reflect on your childhood. sekian