17,000 Child Care Providers in New York State Join AFSCME (96 percent voting in favor of the union)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/15/17000-child-care-providers-in-new-york-state-join-afscme/

by James Parks, Feb 15, 2008

Some 17,000 child care providers across the state of New York voted overwhelmingly today to form a union and join CSEA/Child Care Providers Together–New York (CCPT-NY/CSEA), an affiliate of AFSCME.

The workers were able to form a union after Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) signed an executive order last May granting home-based family child care providers the right to join a union. The executive order created four bargaining units. Units were subdivided into two in New York City and two covering the rest of the state. The vote today was for providers outside New York City.

Child care provider Sherriam McMaster, of Albany, N.Y., says:

We are excited to have our union so we make the changes needed to improve our work, get paid on time and care for the children.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

Today, 17,000 day care workers in New York added their voice to the national cry for change. They said the best way for working families to bring change is to form unions.

FULL story at link.

[aquart]

1. Wonderful news.

Thank you.