AWF Weighs in on Maryland Day Care Union Battle
Click here to read AWF's press release on Maryland day care unions
According to the DundalkEagle.com:
A local child care provider joined many of her colleagues in voting to unionize her occupation so that providers throughout the state have a voice in Annapolis.
Graceland Park resident Tammy Shelby voted because she has been an advocate for child care for the past four years.
Shelby hopes the union will talk to the state about stabilizing rates for providers.
“There’s a huge list of things that need to be addressed,” she said. “But in the end, it’s all about taking care of children. That’s the most important thing.”
But the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Alliance for Worker Freedom opposes the vote by child care providers to join the union, according to its policy director, Brian Johnson.
“If the [child care providers] are granted bargaining rights through their union, the parents will end up paying,” Johnson said last week. “If the providers want higher wages, that’s going to carry over to the parents, and most parents have a hard time paying for childcare as it is.”
Johnson believes that if child care providers are given collective bargaining rights, some aspects of their care would be at risk. “Not only would this set a [Maryland] precedent,” he said, “but we think that the market forces required to maintain a balance of access, affordability and quality will be thrown by the wayside.”
His predictions about a union of child care workers are bleak.
“Look at what happened with GM,” Johnson said. “If the union calls a strike, everything stops. In this instance, you could have thousands of displaced children across Maryland, which will lead to a growing reliance on unlicensed, underground child care providers.”...click to continue.
