With all that is going on with Covid there is a huge push to
'unionize' and ECE Unite childcare by a few in the sector! I am in camp be careful
what you wish for! There is a reason why there is not a strong union
presence in the childcare sector over the past what 60 plus year since
the development of the first Day Nursery Act regulating our industry -
childcare is one of the oldest professions in the world even more it was
'regulated' and one that could actually use the collective bargaining
power more than auto workers when it comes to protections yet unions
went there the actual money was!
Typically it is not a wise 'business investment' for them and please do
not be naive a Union is a BUSINESS - it charges members dues in
exchange for a service that is a business and if the dues do not cover
the cost of service that would be needed to effect change than there is
no point in them continuing to provide the service but you could end up
still stuck paying the dues to how difficult it is to break a union once
it gets a foot in the door .
That is why so many unionized childcares over the past decades have
CLOSED because the employer could not provide what the union was
demanding - we have seen so many well paying positions evaporate as
college lab schools got closed and as 'regional operated' childcare
centres were closed and the off loaded childcare to 'community
partners'.
The challenge for our sector is NOT our employers and
that is the only level that unions have the power to negotiate with -
they collectively bargain with your employer .... also currently your
'collective bargaining' in a union would be the voices of the employees
at that individual centre or if you work for a 'chain' of centres all
operated by the same person than you could have a slightly larger
collective voice but it is still going to be SMALL and therefore largely
ineffective ...the fact is that you cannot get blood from a stone and
the reason our wages are so low is that unlike auto industry there is no
PROFIT in childcare sector to suck out of a business owner to raise
wages and benefits and pensions out of and unlike TEACHERS our wages are
reflective of the fees for service charged to individual parents not
the collective tax payers! If parents had to pay out of their individual
pocket for 'education' than the reality is that there would be a huge
influx of one parent leaving the work force and HOME SCHOOLING because
they would not be able to afford to pay for education - same goes for
childcare. If the cost of childcare is MORE than a parent can hope to
earn than there becomes no need for 'childcare' they will just remain
home and provide it themselves!
In the current model of childcare
in Ontario unionization will not produce the results ECE want like the
College you will end up paying for something that in reality does not
serve YOU it just serves someone else - so at a 2% of your wages due
rate even if you only made $28,000 which is minimum wage now you will
find yourself paying $560 or more if you make more annually in union
dues with little more 'protections' than you have under the Employment
Standards Act already because the cold hard reality of our field is that
our employers do not offer us more because they are rolling in profits
they have a limited revenue of fees capped by their license to balance
their budget with ... the only reason why 'non profits' pay more than
private sector is that non profits get more FUNDING from the government
in way of operating grants, more wage enhacement grant and if they are
non profit they often have chartible status so can access
'reductions/discounts' in rent, phone, tax prep and other overhead costs
that a 'private' model can not ... we need to stop being naive there is
no PROFIT in childcare - if there were there would actually be
businesses rising to meet the demand - beside every Tim Hortons there
would be a private childcare to match 'raking in the profits' ... the
reason there is shortage of childcare is that no one wants to invest the
time, energy and money into opening childcare - non profits cannot find
people who want to 'volunteer' to do that hard work and private
business can make AN ACTUAL profit for similar investment opening a TIM
HORTONS which is why there is one of those on every corner instead!
If ECE want to see change IMO they should first join the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) for a far more reasonable fee
of $60 .... as a professional association they can provide the
collective voice of 50,000 ECE who are registered with the College of
ECE and any who do not have to be to push government for UNIVERSAL
childcare model where the GOVERNMENT becomes the employer of all ECE
just like TEACHERS ... and THAN you can look to all unionize under the
collective employer of the government and the collective pockets of ALL
TAX PAYERS to bare the burden of increased wages and resources for ECE
professionals.
IMO the AECEO can provide a much larger collective
voice than 'individual centres' who manage to get a union into them and
for FAR LESS investment from the ECE!
Start THERE is you want to
actually see change ... the AECEO could do so much more than they
already do if every ECE registered with the College also joined the
AECEO .... their budget to advocate and increase their lobby reach of
the government could be truly profound .... their current paid
membership is so LOW and they already do more for ECE imagine what they
could do with better resources!
Nothing will change in the
licensed childcare sector under the current model of 'market can bare'
fee collection! That is what changed FIRST for teachers too - the move
from private education to public. If we want what teachers have we need
to follow that same path - create a public universal childcare model and
THAN form the unions under that!
even with universal childcare - we need to be careful what we wish for here in Ontario because we are not doing such a good job in public education the answer so shortage in funding from our leaders regardless of their political affiliation when they are in power they always seem to choose to cram more children into smaller spaces or to take away supports in some manner while the 'middleman bureaucracy' constantly grows and outpaces the frontline support .... so if to fund public education we need to see ratios of 1:20 ore more pupils imagine what the ration for childcare could erode too
Take Spain ratio for infants is 1:8 .... we need to be careful what we
wish for because THAT could be our future - free or greatly reduced
childcare cost for parents at the expense of QUALITY
Be careful what you advocate for - you might get more than you bargained for!
Be careful what you advocate for - you might get more than you bargained for!
Take Care
Margaret
