Issues
As home-based child care providers we are committed to providing
the highest quality care and to making quality child care accessible.
State budget cuts are making this increasingly difficult. Michigan
child care providers are coming together to form a union to better
advocate for ourselves and Michigan's children.
We’re working for:
We need and deserve incomes that pay our bills and support our families. We need
a strong voice for child care providers in the state budgetary process. That’s
one of the reasons we’ve asked the child careUAW and AFSCME
to help us form this union. We know that they have a long history of delivering
results in Michigan.
Affordable health care is an issue for us as a group and an example of how acting
as a group will benefit us more than acting solely as individuals. We do some
of the most important work in a society—taking care of the next generation. Drawing
on the resources of two of the most powerful unions in Michigan, together, we
can address the challenge of access to affordable health care.
We appreciate the need for safeguards protecting our children. What is missing,
however, is a mechanism by which our voice can be heard in the process. By joining
together we create a way for us to be part of designing the system of child care
in Michigan. We need to be a part of the regulatory process and part of the budgetary
process in Michigan. We believe that we are not the only ones who would benefit
from our participation, the children and their families would as well. It just
makes sense to include our experience and knowledge if we want the best child
care system possible.
Michigan has a rich history of workers joining together to use their collective
power to reach their goals. Unions are a means by which people can decide what
is important to them and then act together to make that vision a reality. Just
think about what 45,000 of us acting collectively can accomplish.
Providers together!
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