WHEREAS:

There is a need for affordable, quality child care for our members and families all across the country; and

WHEREAS:

In a 2002 AFSCME survey of 1000 members nationally, 47 percent said they had children under the age of 18 living in their households; and

WHEREAS:

Fully 33 percent of District Council 37's 125,000 membership are estimated to be single parents and 25,000 members have children below the age of 13; and

WHEREAS:

The 7,000 members of Day Care Employees Local 205, District Council 1707, AFSCME, have provided professional and nurturing care and education to hundreds of thousands of different children throughout the City of New York for more than 30 years; and

WHEREAS:

Welfare block grants have been spent down to a level that, according to Mark Greenberg of the Center for Law and Social Policy, "Over the next two or three years most states will have exhausted their reserves," meaning there will be little or no funding left to satisfy child care needs of welfare recipients that we service; and

WHEREAS:

The City of New York's spending on child care has decreased while the funding from both the federal government and New York State has increased; and

WHEREAS:

In most European countries child care for working parents is more readily available and productivity in those countries has been enhanced by childcare; and

WHEREAS:

A recent study showed that early learning gained from pre-school child care generated roughly $4 for every $1 invested, decreased behavioral problems and crime, and increased productivity and academic achievement; and

WHEREAS:

There are long waiting lists across the country for families to gain access to affordable child care because demand has outstripped supply; and

WHEREAS:

Subsidy rates and eligibility salary ceilings for child care are not in keeping with the current market in most states.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates will support and, where possible, initiate legislation that calls for increasing the availability of subsidized child-care centers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates will support and, where possible, work by legislation, collective bargaining and/or in coalitions to construct child-care centers on work sites and in communities near worksites and seek ways to work with existing providers to expand their centers into worksites, including providing 24-hour services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates will work in such coalitions with the understanding that staffing for such centers be unionized, of the highest quality, and fairly compensated in comparison with unionized elementary education personnel; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates will support and, where possible, initiate legislation that calls for increasing and updating both the subsidy levels and subsidy salary ceilings so as to make sure a larger portion of our membership and the public become eligible for subsidized child care; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME and its affiliates continue to support and where possible, initiate legislation that calls for increased child-care subsidies to needy welfare recipients; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the International continues its efforts through using its resources to aid Local 205 to expand its contractual fight through the broad communities of New York City and compel the City of New York to restore all federal and New York State child care funds to be spent on expanding the supply of public child care and covering the increasing cost of such care using all legal means at its disposal; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the fight to restore public child care funding is also the fight to win a fair contract for the 7,000 hard-working professional public day care workers in New York City and restore the respect and dignity of a vital profession which has been overlooked generally except by the working parents it directly affects; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME will commit itself to an ongoing effort through strategic planning to support federal and state legislation providing funding for Day Care Employees Local 205, Council 1707; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That we work in coalitions with those in need, politicians, advocacy groups, our work institutions and providers of child care in order to fulfill our needs for affordable, quality child care.

SUBMITTED BY:

Ralph Palladino, Delegate
AFSCME Local 1549, Council 37
New York

Michael Green, Delegate
AFSCME Local 205, Council 1707
New York