N.J. Home Child Care Workers Get Their Union

CWA Local 1037 has helped more than 6,000 home child care providers in New Jersey get a union voice. 

Day care workers were on hand as Gov. Jon Corzine signed the executive order this week that gives them the right to organize and bargain collectively. The campaign, carried out with AFSCME, means that child care workers now will be able to negotiate over wages — the payments they receive for caring for children in their homes under the state-certified program.

Local 1037 activists and other supporters knocked on thousands of doors in a campaign done entirely through house visits. The local also has built a "neighborhood shop steward" program of activists throughout the state, said local President Hetty Rosenstein.

During the campaign, family care providers built a strong organization, and rallied and met with the governor to press for bargaining rights. At the signing, Corzine recognized "the invaluable and essential service to working parents and guardians" that the state's family care workers provide. The child care providers earn about $99 to $105 per week per child for providing care in their homes to other parents receiving welfare assistance — "unbelievably low wages," Rosenstein said.

Rosenstein and her local were recognized at last month's CWA convention with the President's Annual Award for leading the campaign.

The local also thanked activists from Locals 1031, 1034 and 1079, and ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — for their support.