Baton Rouge     Last week I was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa meeting with our team there pushing hard to organize thousands of home child care workers with SEIU. Similar drives have been pushing forward in New Jersey with CWA. Several weeks ago I met with SEIU 888 on their progress with these workers in Massachusetts. Plans to develop important parent organizing components of these drives nationally are moving forward rapidly.

The ACORN partnership with AFT in New York is the largest of all of these individual state efforts at this point. Sign-up rates are excellent. Participation is robust.

Nowhere have we seen better evidence of this that when 1000 of our brand new home child care members in New York City came together to win commitments to see legislation on their rights and rates introduced in Albany as soon as possible. It is always true that cards do not walk and talk, and this meeting was a powerful example of home child care workers ready to move and step up to fight.

The numbers — and the pictures — tell the real story.

October 31, 2005