LIVING WAGES AND NEUTRALITY: WHY UNIONS SHOULD SUPPORT UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL NOW!
originally published January 27, 2020 at www.jwjpdx.org
The Universal Preschool Now! (UP Now) 2020 ballot measure campaign is a grassroots, community-driven push to create a free, publicly funded, year-round universal preschool system for all kids in Multnomah County. Large metro areas like Washington D.C. and New York City have had extremely successful universal preschool programs for years now, and Chicago recently started rolling out their program in 2018. It’s time for the Portland area to do the right thing and join them!
UP Now’s well-thought-out plan has many benefits we can all get on board with. It will be publicly funded–without austerity measures–through tax increases that will only affect the top 5% of super wealthy income earners in the county. It will be a truly universal service, free to enroll any child regardless of family income on either end of the spectrum. The program will provide play-based, culturally-responsive and inclusive preschooling in multiple languages and in the parents’ choice of setting. This will not be a simple one-size fits all program. Rather, children of all abilities, languages, and backgrounds will be welcome and given the care they need and deserve.
As if that wasn’t enough to ensure support, check out what’s so exciting about this plan specifically for those who value Unions, workers’ rights, and economic justice.
A universal preschool program, one that is publicly funded with no cost for families at the point of service means that working families, single moms, and other single parents who are struggling to make ends meet–as well as student parents, unemployed parents, houseless parents, and legions of underemployed parents who are fighting to reach stable ground–have one less huge financial burden.
In addition, the UP Now plan ensures living wages for teachers in the program through a mandated $18/hr starting wage for all staff, and pay for teachers comparable to elementary school teachers This ensures that our county’s preschool workers won’t live in poverty, and can live in the communities they serve.
Does that wet the Union whistle and get you excited about the campaign? If not, then perhaps a system-wide neutrality agreement will do the trick. Yes you read that right — the UP Now measure requires union neutrality from Multnomah County and from any and all employers that take county money from the universal preschool program, regardless of whether they are preschools or other kinds of child care facilities that can offer a preschool program. That means that legally, preschool and other child care administrators won’t be allowed to fight back and get in the way. They won’t be able to prevent their employees from forming a union, nor can they stop family child care providers from joining the unions already representing others like them who accept public dollars like Employment Related Day Care funding. Neutrality will create a solid foundation for unionization throughout Multnomah County’s public preschool industry as well as the county’s general child care industry. With an established wage floor and union representation, we can get preschool and child care workers the pay and benefits they deserve. If those aren’t good enough reasons for Unions to get on board with the Universal Preschool Now campaign, then what is?
So grab your device (or a pen and some paper), a cup a coffee, and start drafting that endorsement resolution for your Local. Portland Jobs with Justice, AFSCME Local 88, Portland Association of Teachers, ILWU Oregon Area District Council, and CWA Local 7901 have already signed on. Let’s get your Union on board!
Click Here to get your Union connected with the UP Now campaign!
(title photo taken by Rick Belliveau)
