Illinois Forges Contract With SEIU Representing Childcare Workers

By Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune

Dec. 13–The state and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have reached a precedent-setting tentative agreement for 49,000 child care workers, marking the nation’s first state contract for the typically lowly paid workers.

The pact is expected to be announced Tuesday.

“We think it is an incredible victory and it will give us momentum to organize child care workers across the country,” said Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the 1.8-million member union.

With an estimated 1.3 child care workers across the nation, the SEIU views the child care industry as an untapped source of potential members.

Under a 39-month agreement, the mostly female and minority workforce will receive an average 35 percent increase in daily rates, incentives to boost their training, and health care coverage in the last year of the contract.

The contract will cost the state $250 million over the length of the agreement, boosting child care expenses by over $70 million, state and SEIU officials said.

The workers’ pay now ranges from $9.48 to $22 per child per day, depending on the youngsters’ ages and where the workers live. The majority of workers earn the lowest rate and care for only three children.

Though they are not state employees, Gov. Rod Blagojevich earlier this year signed an order for Illinois to bargain with them. They care for about 200,000 children from low- and moderate- income families, whose child care expenses are covered by the state and federal governments.

To encourage workers to increase their job-related training, the contract provides for them to receive up a 20 percent hike in their daily rate if they take added classes.

As for their health care coverage, state officials said the state would not set up a new program for the workers, but would set aside money to be used for one.

Keith Kelleher, head organizer for SEIU Local 880, predicted that the income hike along with health care coverage would reduce the high turnover among child care workers. Up to half of the child care workers in the state quit their jobs yearly, he said.

When Gov. Blagojevich opened the door for bargaining with the workers that triggered a fierce organizing battle between the SEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

With neither of the two giant unions willing to back down, the AFL-CIO stepped in and ruled that the SEIU should represent workers.

The child care workers soon after voted for the service employees union by an overwhelming margin, giving it the largest single organizing victory in Illinois history, said SEIU officials.

The anger spurred by the competition in Illinois and elsewhere cooled in September when the two unions vowed not to raid each other. They also decided to jointly organize child care workers in California and Pennsylvania.

But that agreement does not apply to elsewhere in the U.S., and the SEIU’s Burger predicted that her union will sweep the drive to sign up child care workers in the 14 states where her union is organizing.

“Hopefully, we won’t compete with them everywhere,” said Paul Booth, an AFSCME official in Washington, D.C. “So far where we’ve run into them, they’ve been late to the scene.”

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