Workers Get Head Start with UCCU

Tired of stagnant wages and poor benefits, Head Start workers in Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pa., chose union representation during an election Jan. 22.The workers voted 243 to 125 in favor of the fledgling United Child Care Union. The huge victory capped months of intense organizing by UCCU and District 1199C, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, as well as a vigorous anti-union campaign by Resources for Human Development, an employer of Head Start workers in the Philadelphia area.

RHD employs nearly 400 workers under three programs: Rainbow Community Head Start and New Beginnings Head Start in north Philadelphia, and Delaware County Head Start.

Brenda Raynor, a five-year maintenance worker at New Beginnings, joined the initial organizing push in May. She recalls telling her co-workers that now’s the time to “stand up” and be heard. “I told them to look at the situation that we’ve been going through. ... Time in and time out we’ve been going home stressed out of our minds, tired of worrying about what’s going to be next,” says Raynor. RHD is “always giving us threatening situations ... no benefits — nothing — to help us with our families.”

“A change is coming,” adds Ursula Jones, a teacher at New Beginnings for six years. “For everyone who works in all three programs, we have a voice now where we didn’t have that voice.”

During the post-election celebration at 1199C headquarters, President Henry Nicholas set the tempo for further advancement of child care workers. He exhorted the new union members, which he called a “brigade,” to use this victory as a stepping stone to a larger organizing campaign.

Nicholas announced plans to develop teams and devise strategies to begin organizing other child care workers in the region.