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Abstract

Child-care providers are among the lowest paid wage workers in the United States. Nationwide, less than 5 percent of child-care providers are represented by labor unions. This article addresses the question,: How can family child care providers be effectively organized? I describe and analyze Local 880 Service Employees In ternational Union's effort to organize family child-care providers in Illinois. Adapting the grassroots-organizing model that they developed to organize homecare workers, Local 880 has over 2,200 signed authorization cards and over 1,500 members in the family child-care union. Even without formal recognition, the union won a pay increase for providers in 1999 and has filed numerous suc cessful grievances about disputed back pay. Keys to 880's success in organizing family child-care providers were: (1) prior experience in homecare organizing, especially non-NLRB organizing, (2) experi ence with grassroots organizing, and maintaining unions without recognition, and (3) ability to influence state-wide elections and legislative issues by becoming involved in direct politics and join ing coalitions.

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New Turf for Organizing: Family Child Care Providers

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