Unionized Day Care an Ill-advised Endeavor

Editor's Note: This article was provided by Rep. Kurt Bill's email newsletter.

Gov. Mark Dayton recently issued an executive order calling for a vote to unionize private, independent at-home childcare providers. This directly conflicts with what we need to do in our new economic era.

This appears to be a top-down push from public unions who are looking to get their hands on yet another revenue stream. It disturbs me our children and our small businesses are the target this time. A recent KSTP poll shows more than 80 percent of respondents disapprove of this initiative. It is hard to see who benefits from unionized childcare, other than the unions themselves and a small minority of daycare providers who receive subsidies.

Unionization of daycare providers is likely to drive up costs for childcare at a time this recession already has many parents feeling buried. Childcare rates jumped as much as 35 percent in Illinois since the first year of its union contract in 2006. Significant childcare rate increases occurred in at least seven of the unionized daycare states.

This push also would put unions in position to be making decisions regarding what is best for our children. Those choices should be made by parents and the providers they entrust, not by union suits and government bureaucracy. I doubt our children will receive better care because a union is formed. Are providers somehow going to be inspired to do their job better if they belong to a union?

We should have serious concerns about how the union vote itself is being conducted. The governor’s order limits voting rights to the 4,287 licensed in-home child care providers who receive state subsidies. The approximately 7,000 licensed in-home childcare providers who do not take state subsidies will not have a voice in this matter. That means a 40-percent minority will be casting votes that would impact the entire industry, the parents who use childcare services and children themselves. At the very least, all 11,000 providers should be able to cast a vote. Joining a union may be voluntary, but all providers could be subject to paying fair-share fees.

The governor indicates his order does not make daycare providers state employees, but we can see the writing on the wall because the precedent exists elsewhere. Michigan’s governor classified that state’s daycare providers as public employees after they unionized.

I was sent to office last January largely because I am determined to enact fiscally responsible measures to help us manage today's economy. This involves getting government off the backs of private-sector businesses and out of the pockets of taxpayers. We just learned the decisions we made in 2011 have ended a four-year stretch of budget shortfalls under the former majority and we now have an $876 million surplus. But our work is far from finished and we should be focusing on other ways of reducing government growth, not finding new ways to spend even more of our hard-earned tax dollars through government overreach.

The unionization vote is taking place Dec. 6-21. Please continue providing me with input on this issue and also let your childcare provider know where you stand.