Audio Organizing daycare (story audio) Photos Donna Giersdorf-Thompson and daughter Giersdorf-Thompson's living room Eric Lehto More from MPR Day care costs create obstacles for working poor Resources AFSCME Minnesota Council 5 SEIU Minnesota State Council Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

Duluth day care provider Donna Giersdorf-Thompson juggles daughter Gracie while talking about the difficulties keeping her business in business. She says she often makes about 75 cents per hour per child. Her center is licensed for 14 kids, and now has eight. (MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher)

A labor union best know for representing government workers, is now organizing home-based childcare providers. AFSCME is signing up daycare providers in St. Louis, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. The daycare associations aren't traditional labor unions, but organizers say they might be a tool to increase support for an undervalued profession.

Duluth, Minn. — Donna Giersdorf-Thompson has been in the childcare business for four years, and already she's had thoughts about getting out.

Giersdorf-Thompson runs Small World Family Care in Duluth, where she looks after eight kids. About a third are from families that qualify for Minnesota's daycare subsidies. Others are from families not much better off. Giersdorf-Thompson says it's very difficult to raise rates to a level that would provide her a reasonable income.

"You know, we want to help people out, and don't want to make things difficult for them, so we take much less than we're worth," Giersdorf-Thompson says. "You not only receive less than you're worth, but it's really hard to increase your rates so you can expect to have cost of living increases."

Giersdorf-Thompson is one of more than 200 St. Louis County childcare providers who've signed up for union representation from AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Eric Lehto heads up AFCME's drive. Lehto says it's hard to provide quality day care when childcare rates are low.

"And the astonishing number that I found is, is that the Minnesota Department of Human Services did a study, that found providers are earning on an average $2.83 an hour," Lehto says. "That's what they're, on average, taking in. A lot of those folks are not earning a lot of money."

The average is driven down by substantial costs, for building upkeep, food, training and licensing.

At the heart of the low return, Lehto says, is the low rate of government support for kids from the neediest families. While there was a small increase recently, Minnesota's reimbursement rates have been essentially frozen since 2002. Meanwhile, thousands of families lost their subsidy when the state raised eligibility levels.

"The providers, many of them, are put in a box, where they feel that they can't raise their rates much more or much higher above what the current subsidy rate is, which has been frozen, or for fear that their parents won't be able to afford to have their kids in their licensed center." says Lehto.

Lehto says AFSCME can can help negotiate better rates with the state. He says the union can also help providers with health care and retirement. But he says, most importantly, it can help re-focus society's commitment to kids.

"Our's is not an effort to raise the cost onto working families," Lehto says. "Our effort is to increase in the public committment, the same way that it is for public education, in terms of from birth to going into school. There should be a broad public commitment in terms of insuring that kids are taken care during that time frame in a good quality setting."

AFSCME is seeking participation from at least half the providers in each targeted county. They've succeeded in St. Louis and Ramsey Counties.

Secondly, the union wants support from county government, to give AFSCME a formal voice on behalf of providers - what Lehto calls "meet and confer rights." St. Louis County is the first to agree.

County Commissioner Steve O'Neil says the county's resolution passed is more symbolic than committal.

"This is an opportunity to get those folks organized, and to have some really significant representation at the capital," O'Neil says. "Our resolution, you know, is really just a sign that we, as one county, would like to see this happen."

Eric Lehto says a similar resolution might go before the Ramsey County Board this spring. In Hennepin County, AFSCME is in the process of signing up providers. But it's slower going in the Twin Cities, Lehto says, where AFSCME finds itself competing with the Service Employees International Union. SEIU is trying to put together a statewide organization. They just did that in Illinois. AFSCME, meanwhile, claims success in several states including Oregon and Iowa.

But Lehto says AFSCME will focus for now on one Minnesota county at a time. He says it's unlikely Minnesota will give a statewide organization any role in day care, until the state has, what he calls, a "good and friendly" governor.