Washington state Democrats are poised to help one of the state's most powerful unions possibly swell its ranks by as many as 12,000 members with legislation that would give child care center owners and workers collective bargaining rights worth hundreds of millions of dollars.House Bill 2449 would allow the day care center owners and workers to join either the Service Employees International Union or a separate teachers union. They would then be entitled to negotiate with the state for increased reimbursement rates for children from low-income families.
Proponents of the bill say it would improve the quality of care for all children in day care and improve benefits for the low-wage workers who are entrusted to look after those children.
But critics say the measure is a huge state giveaway that would increase pressure on an already bloated state budget. They're also concerned about expanding a contractual arrangement that directly finances a politically active union.
Under the contract negotiated last year for home day care workers, the state pays roughly $3 million a year into union bank accounts for dues taken directly from provider reimbursements, according to Department of Early Learning documents.
The arrangement with day care centers would likely be similar.
Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, said collective bargaining rights are the best means for making sure the Legislature does not allow the issue to fall out of focus in the future.
"There's a huge gap still between what we provide in subsidies and what it actually costs to provide the care," he said. "We are way, way behind even with the significant contribution from last year."
Like many Democrats, Pettigrew has benefited from SEIU campaign contributions and agrees that the union is a political force to be reckoned with.
The fastest-growing union in Washington, SEIU represents more than 100,000 workers in the state.
Its Local 925 membership includes 23,000 education and public service workers, 12,000 family child care workers, 6,500 University of Washington employees, 3,500 public school employees, and 1,000 public service workers at public and nonprofit organizations in the state.
Besides helping with campaigns, the union is also known for using its members and money to vigorously work against lawmakers who stand in its way.
But Pettigrew said there was never any quid pro quo and there's nothing wrong with policymaking that facilitates a union's growth.
"They have tapped into a group of folks that have been ignored for an awfully long time," he said.
Conservatives -- including Liv Finne, director of the Center for Education at the Washington Policy Center -- questioned how the line between campaign contributors and elected officials who negotiate contracts could remain clear under the proposed arrangement.
"What's really startling about this is that the state is basically becoming a bill collector for the union," she said. "When you have a contract, you are supposed to have an arm's-length relationship so that the interests of the parties are clearly defined and not veiled to the public."
There are 118,000 children enrolled in the 2,092 child care centers in Washington.
For the state, it's a fast-growing expense.
Last year the state increased subsidies to day care providers who care for children from low-income families from $138 million in the 2005-07 budget to $214 million in the current biennium.
Two years ago 10,000 home day care centers won collective bargaining rights and in turn negotiated a $45 million increase in reimbursement rates.
Last year nonunion child care centers received a $32.4 million increase in subsidy payments from the state to care for low-income children.
Kim Cook, president of SEIU Local 925, which represents education workers, including home day care workers, said state subsidy rates for day care centers are currently 60 percent of what families who pay privately are charged.
"Right now the private-pay parents are subsidizing state kids," she said. "If you can get that rate up to an equal level, then it's more equally balanced and the centers can afford to pay better."
In this case of the new legislation, day care center managers and workers would both be unionized.
"It's really about bargaining with the state, not bargain with your boss over hiring and firing and the traditional issues that unions often deal with," she said.
Cook said the bill would not directly increase wages but rather the reimbursement rate that the state pays day care centers.
"If you ask any one of them how they make ends meet, it's not by making a profit -- it's by pumping every penny they can get into wages to try to attract workers," Cook said.
Finne said the bill does not provide any guarantee that wages would increase along with the subsidies.
"They are saying this is a new kind of collective bargaining that is only for the narrow purpose of negotiating rates, not for subjects under traditional collective bargaining such as wages and other benefits," she said. "This bill wouldn't give them power to negotiate wages and work situation."
Likewise, she said turnover rates are exaggerated.
Kari Koens, owner of Tomorrow's Future Child Development Center, in Mount Vernon, disagrees. She said the measure is long overdue.
To keep the 16 employees she needs to care for 80 children, Koens said she is in a never-ending hiring mode.
"If we were to receive higher reimbursement rates, I would be paying my employees more," she said. "That would lead to higher quality of care, because we wouldn't have such a high turnover rate."
Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, strongly supports the bill.
"They are some of the lowest-wage workers doing the most important work," he said of child care workers.
As to the future costs of additional collective bargaining, Chopp said it was a good investment.
The bill recently passed in the House and is now being considered by the Senate.
Gov. Chris Gregoire "supports paying people a living wage, and what that legislation looks like remains to be seen," said her spokesman Aaron Toso. "We are trying to work through all issues."
(seattlepi.nwsource.com)
