To: NJ Department of Human Services
Negotiate a Fair Contract with Home Child Care Professionals!
Tell New Jersey’s Department of Human Services to negotiate a fair contract for the more than 2,000 home child-care providers who are raising our children while earning poverty wages!
Why is this important?
As home child care providers, we partner with New Jersey’s working families to care for their children while providing flexible hours and a safe & loving environment. In 2007 we won the right to organize a union and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. Our first contract was a huge victory and now we’re negotiating a second contract that will increase our wages AND our ability to provide the children we care for with the necessary resources to be successful in their lives.
We’re just two of 2,000 home child care providers in New Jersey earning wages so low we could qualify for taxpayer-funded public assistance programs. In fact, home child care providers contracted by the state of New Jersey to care for the children of working parents, haven’t received a raise in over five years.
Some of us have degrees in education and early childhood development – and all of us work upwards of 50 or 60 hours each week. We’re also classified as “independent contractors” which prevents us from accessing workers’ compensation, unemployment, social security retirement or even basic health care coverage.
We struggle to make ends meet – not just for our own families – but also for the children we care for. We frequently pay out-of-pocket for food and basic supplies…even diapers! Many of us also take on the important work of caring for physically and developmentally disabled children who require more attention, extra support and additional resources.
As hard-working professionals who care for New Jersey’s next generation we deserve to earn enough to provide basic needs for our own families. We also deserve the resources and support that the children we care for require to be successful in all the developmental stages their lives.
Please support our efforts and tell the New Jersey Department of Human Services, to negotiate a fair contract for home child care professionals!
Sincerely,
Shawanda Jones-Velez, Newark, NJ
Danisia Valadez, Passaic, NJ
Professional Child Care Providers in New Jersey