November 15, 2006 in City

Child care workers, state sign first deal

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
 

At a glance

The state’s 12,000 family child care workers serve more than 60,000 children. The work force is divided roughly in half between licensed homes and unlicensed providers who typically care for two or more siblings.

OLYMPIA – Newly unionized family child care providers and the state have agreed on a first-ever contract that would boost wages significantly over the next two years.

The Service Employees International Union Local 925, representing 12,000 family child care providers, estimates the contract is worth about $50 million. The funds will be included in the governor’s budget and the Legislature is expected to approve the pact, effective next summer.

The contract is the first to be negotiated under terms of a new collective bargaining law. The state also has reached separate contracts with state agency workers. Child care workers are not state employees, but the state pays them to care for state clients, many from welfare families where parents are looking for work or going to school.

The contract will boost the reimbursement for licensed providers by 7 percent next year and another 3 percent in 2008. License-exempt workers will see their rates rise by 4 percent next year and an additional 3 percent in 2008.

Union leaders said license-exempt providers typically care for two children, earning $2.06 an hour for one child and $1.03 for each sibling. The new contract pays for all children at the higher rate and then boosts the overall rate by 7 percent over two years. The union calculated that these providers will receive a 31 percent raise over the next two years, the first since 1999.

Beginning in 2008, providers who care for at least four state-subsidized children will have access to health care plans.

The contract also includes money for training providers, higher reimbursement for watching infants and caring for children at night, and greater access to federal food programs.

“Providers do this work because we love children and want them to have a good start on life,” said Sandra VanDoren, a negotiator from Spokane who cares for 12 children.

“We joined together because it had become so difficult for providers to keep delivering affordable, quality child care. This contract will help us make sure kids in our communities get the care they need.”

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