Family child care providers across California are celebrating a historic partnership with the American Federation of State & County Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to build a new union for child care providers led by child care providers.
Child Care Providers United (CCPUnited) of California is the official name of this exciting new union. Formerly known as the United Child Care Union (UCCU) and affiliated with AFSCME’s National Union of Hospital Health Care Employees (NUHHCE) and SEIU’s Kids First, CCPUnited and its sister union Child Care Providers United of Pennsylvania are part of a nationwide movement of family child care providers and the labor movement to win respect, recognition, and justice. The historic union may soon include nearly 125,000 family child care providers in Pennsylvania and California.
After several years of hard work, struggle, and successes, CCPUnited was officially launched last November after AFSCME and SEIU signed a historic agreement for a first-of-its kind joint union led by family child care providers.
Child care providers have a profound effect on children’s intellectual and emotional development, providing early education and enhancing a child’s social development. Our relationships with children, parents and guardians often span generations, forming strong bonds over a lifetime. We serve parents who rely on us to provide their children with stimulating early education and quality care while they work to support their families.
Our commitment and dedication have not been in vain – we are changing the face of the labor movement. Our struggle for human rights, justice, and equality is national in scope, and our conviction to translate our ideals into action has inspired labor unions to sustain their commitment to elevate all of America’s unorganized, low-wage, working men and women.
In the past four years, more than 200,000 family child care providers across America have said yes to the labor movement, helping to build our own voice, nurture and educate America’s youngest children, and chart our own future.
Child Care Providers United of California – in neighborhoods and communities everywhere. Join us! We can do it!