MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 Kids First Chapter President
Penni Theriault signs the first contract covering over 2,000
home-based child care providers in Maine on July 26 at a ceremony
in Augusta
with Maine DHHS Commissioner Brenda Harvey and the
state's bargaining team. Family child care providers throughout
Maine voted in 2008 to unionize with the Maine State Employees
Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International
Union. Their first contract, which was ratified by members of
the union in March 2010, guarantees that there will be no cuts
to state subsidy levels during the length of the contract, a
rate re-opener if additional federal or state money targeted
for family child care becomes available, that family child care
providers have a seat on all state boards relating to family
child care and that there is a fair process to talk about statewide
systemic issues. The contract is good through June 30, 2011.
"The contract gives child care providers
a voice in decisions that the state makes about our businesses,"
said Penni, a member of the Kids First bargaining team that
negotiated the contract. "Providers want to offer quality care
and yet still be able to keep our doors open to provide it.
This contract goes a long way toward ensuring that."
Tammy Corriveau, a Kids First member who
is a child care provider in Caribou, said, "It's so important
to have reliable child care in all of our communities. This
contract will help ensure that quality care is there for Maine's
working families."
Over 2,000 licensed family childcare providers
are covered by the new contract.
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MSEA-SEIU Retiree member Frank Kadi, who
is chair of the MSEA-SEIU committee known as Political Action
by Service Employees and Retirees, talks with a staffer of Senator
Collins on June 30 about why it's urgent for Senator Collins
this week to support funding extensions MaineCare services and
unemployment insurance. Another group of Mainers, also including
MSEA-SEIU members, visited Senator Snowe's Portland office June
30 to deliver the same message. Over 150 Mainers attended a
rally urging Senators Snowe and Collins to support the funding
extensions. See
a slideshow from the rally here.
Earlier this summer, Helen Hanson, president
of the Maine Direct Care Workers Union Local 771 of MSEA-SEIU
Local 1989, spoke at a press
conference in Portland urging Senators
Snowe and Collins to support the same extensions.
"Unless Senators Snowe
and Collins vote to extend FMAP funding, Maine people who use
direct care services would see their services substantially cut
back, forcing many of them out of their homes against their will,"
Hanson wrote in an op-ed
column appearing in The Times Record in Brunswick.
"Direct care workers themselves would see their hourly wages
cut, forcing many to find better paying work elsewhere. This would
threaten the quality care provided, and create real turmoil among
Maine people who count on reliable direct care services. Finally,
unless Senators Snowe and Collins extend the FMAP funding, Maine's
efforts to build a reliable network of direct care workers would
suffer great harm - just as the demand for direct care services
is increasing all across our nation."
Unless Senators Snowe and Collins approve
the extensions, Maine will lose 3,441 jobs and incur an $86
million budget gap that would deeply impact services to Maine's
most vulnerable citizens.
If you haven't already contacted Senators
Snowe and Collins and urged them to support the FMAP funding
extensions, please do so immediately.
Below are links to the editorials
by Maine's daily newspapers urging Senators Snowe and Collins
to support the FMAP funding extensions.
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From
the Desk of President Bruce Hodsdon
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Click
here for President Hodsdon's column:
"MSEA-SEIU Stewards Honor Roll, Spring 2010"
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