Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Members of Child Care Providers United (CCPU)—which represents approximately 60,000 home-based child care providers in California—have reached a tentative agreement with the state.
The union is a partnership between Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and United Domestic Workers of America, UDW/AFSCME Local 3930. Child care workers are among the lowest-paid workers in the country—and because home-based providers in California are classified as small business owners, they also don’t have access to employer-provided benefits. After CCPU won the right to collectively bargain in 2019, it secured the establishment of a retirement fund and other major wins. The new agreement covering CCPU members ensures the retention of those retirement, health care and training benefits, a cost-of-living adjustment, and stabilization payments that will help prevent child care provider closures.
“In these times in which healthcare is under attack by the federal government in the form of Medicaid cuts, which of course is Medi-Cal for us, it’s significant to have a benefit like that so they can take care of themselves and their families as they continue to do this work,” said Max Arias, CCPU chairperson and chief negotiator.