WHEREAS:

            AFSCME represents more than 100,000 child care workers and child care home providers and has a huge stake in the growing child care industry across the nation; and

WHEREAS:

            The need of low-income families, either single-parent or two-parent, to have the necessity for safe, quality and affordable child care has risen dramatically.  This industry is growing exponentially as parents are forced to work longer hours and the need for  affordable care has become the standard in New York State and in New York City, no longer an unfunded mandate but a social and political necessity; and

WHEREAS:

            Child care has become a growing industry in the nation and in New York City alone the early care and education sector of the economy generates $1.9 billion, which includes parent fees, government subsidies and industry support paid by the government; and

WHEREAS:

            The child care industry must be recognized as a vital economic engine that is necessary and an integral part of the social infrastructure that keeps the nation working by enabling parents to work and in many places provides social and educational structures for the nation’s infants, toddlers and children; and

WHEREAS:

            New York State and New York City have passed through legislation which promotes early childhood education with more than $300 million allotted to educate our youngest citizens; and

WHEREAS:

            The child care industry supports local and national economies, relieves parents of burdensome concerns about their children and offers children a safe haven from being home alone or with unqualified care; and

WHEREAS:

            The federal Child Care and Development Block Grant exists to aid low-income parents to afford quality, affordable and safe child care by providing a subsidy to child care providers and organizations.  But the appropriations for the CCDBG have not increased in five years, a substantial cut when adjusted for inflation.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME calls for an increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant in the HHS-Labor Appropriations Bill; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME continues to increase its organizing efforts in this industry and expands its resources across the nation to organize child care workers in this growing and vital industry by providing affiliates with the research, training and the means to carry out organizing campaigns in local areas; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME promotes its organized child care workers as models for the industry to promote this union as the national leader in organizing child care workers and home providers; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME promotes public child care nationally as an organizing tool to aid working and poor families and greater organize the workers in this industry that must continue to develop so that our children may keep up with the rest of the world which has safe, quality and affordable early childhood education from Singapore to Paris.