With only one week of summer left, NYC’s teachers aren’t just preparing for school to start. They are also getting ready to see their union, the United Federation of Teachers, increase its membership by 20%.

For the past few years, the UFT and ACORN have been organizing New York City’s home-based child care providers, of which there are almost 28,000. This is the largest organizing drive New York has seen in decades. The campaign also included a substantial amount of lobbying in Albany in order to get the laws changed so that the workers could form a union.

This week’s issue of Crain’s explains it:

Although home-based child care providers care for the children of low-income workers who receive child care subsidies from the state, the providers are independent contractors, not state employees. As a result, they could not unionize without a change in the law. After lobbying from the UFT and Civil Service Employees Association, another union that will represent 30,000 upstate child care providers, Mr. Spitzer signed an executive order in May granting them the right to organize….Without any opposition from the state, the nominal employer in this case, the UFT was able to quickly gather the 8,400 signatures needed to request a union election.

This is something that we can be sure would never have happened on Pataki’s watch. In fact, he vetoed a bill that would’ve given the workers the right to organize last year.

Home-based child care providers currently earn about $19,933 a year and have no health benefits. So after an election this fall, the UFT will prepare to negotiate a contract with the state that will provide a living wage and benefits.

This can only mean good things for teachers and the UFT as their political capital in the city is bound to increase. It is a victory for the workers, the UFT and NY’s labor movement.

This post was written by Natasha Winegar. While Jonathan is away on vacation, she will be posting in his place.