25th May 2006
The Power of Unions
I have an uneasy relationship with unions. My dad is always bitching about being basically forced to join a union and that sort of shaped my opinions. I’ve heard of the good that they’ve done in the United States in terms of transforming abusive labor practices into less abusive ones, but sometimes labor unions have their own issues with abuse internally.
This story, Day Care Workers Flex Their Muscle, in TruthOut of the day care workers union was enough to convert me back again to the positive power of unions.
When her infant daughter’s chronic ear infections made her miss too many days at work, Angenita Tanner of Chicago decided in 1996 to quit her job and work from home as a full-time babysitter.Experienced in the field and equipped with an associate degree in early childhood education, she launched Grandma’s House Child Care. Her first clients were low-income working mothers whose daycare expenses were paid by the state. Six months after Tanner’s career change, she found herself on the brink of financial ruin. She had received no payment from the state for the eight children in her daily care.
“I was in business six months and not getting a paycheck. I was at the kitchen table with my assistant, a retired nurse, going over the bills. I’m feeding the kids, trying to pay my mortgage, trying to provide materials like books and toys, plus I haven’t paid my assistant,” she remembers. “Being in business for yourself in your own home, you have no one to go to. I’m sitting there, I’m stressed and the doorbell rings.”
At the door, as if on cue, was a representative of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Tanner attended an SEIU organizing meeting that night, found herself giving an impassioned speech and joining the union. “At that point I realized I wasn’t alone anymore,” she recalls. Thus began her commitment to improve the working conditions of Illinois child-care providers who contract with the state.
I had an interview with SEIU a couple of years ago to lead an education program out of their Los Angeles office. It was a long commute and one of those jobs that you had to breathe and sleep SEIU so I opted out of the second interview. But reading this story reminded me of the importance, the power, of unions.
