After four years of off-and-on infighting and intrigue, testimony from 100 witnesses and long hours of debate, the Vermont Senate passed a bill Thursday that will allow independent child care providers who receive subsidies from the state to form a collective bargaining unit.
The vote on S.316 was 22-8 on Thursday. The legislation was approved for final passage in the Senate on Friday.
It was the first time the bill’s substance was heard on the merits. In previous debates on the Senate floor, the legislation has been ruled out for procedural reasons.
Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, a staunch opponent of the bill went head-to-head with the main sponsor, Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, in a 2.5 hour back-and-forth that prompted a number of recesses, amendments, interrogations, attacks and counterattacks.
In three separate amendments, Mullin attempted to prove that the providers are businesses, not individual workers. He questioned whether the passage of S.316 would result in a new precedent that would allow other businesses who receive state subsidies to form unions.
“I can’t for the life of me fathom going down the road of unionizing businesses,” Mullin said.
Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden, pointed out that the state had already allowed home health care workers to bargain with the state.
Questions were also raised about the constitutionality of agency fees — a percentage of union dues — that are charged to workers who are not union members. Last year, the Legislature passed the “fair share” bill, which requires non-union members who benefit from collective bargaining to pay the fees.
Mullin also questioned whether the state in future would have the funding to pay higher subsidies for childcare providers.
When McCormack replied that reimbursement rates could go up between $800,000 and $2.5 million as a result of negotiations, Mullin turned the argument, insisting that the state could simply raise reimbursement rates without negotiating with the union.
Childcare providers are currently reimbursed at 2008 rates. It would cost about $9 million to bring rates up to 2012 levels, according to an analysis from the Joint Fiscal Office.
Then Mullin tried another tack. He said if the bill passes, childcare providers who don’t want to join the union will refuse to take children who receive subsidies, and that turn of events would create a class divide between low-income parents and families with means.
“I think this is a dangerous, dangerous road that we are on, and I believe in the end the kids lose,” Mullin said.
Baruth talked about what all of the senators could agree on: Namely, the understanding that very young children respond to intellectual stimulation and early brain development is crucial to the longterm success of students. He also said there is a recognition that early childhood educators are underpaid. (Providers typically earn less than $20,000 a year, according to McCormack.)
“Most people don’t want to form a union,” Baruth said. “They form one because it’s only way to increase their pay. It would be one thing if we (the Senate) had made a way to make these people whole, but we haven’t and we haven’t over and over again.”
The bill allows childcare providers to negotiate with the Shumlin administration for higher subsidies, but the Legislature must approve the appropriation.
Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor, has long opposed S.316, and he didn’t waiver in his skepticism on Thursday. Campbell said his concern is that the bill technically makes childcare providers employees of the state and who are entitlted to workers’ compensation.
Representatives from childcare centers and the American Federation of Teachers were thrilled and a little teary-eyed when the Secretary of the Senate, John Bloomer, announced the outcome of the vote.
Heather Riemer, a lobbyist for the union, said: “This is a really great day for providers across the state of Vermont. They have been fighting for four years to have the same right as teachers and firefighters to come together to negotiate to make early education better for the families they serve.”
The legislation now goes to the House, which passed a previous iteration of the bill several years ago.
