A plan by California Democrats to unionize family members who get paid by the state to care for their relatives’ children would hurt the poor, writes Daniel Weintraub in the Sacramento Bee. Some providers would make more; others would make nothing since the state’s day care subsidies would cover fewer children.
The child care providers – grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings – would pay dues and be represented collectively in negotiations with the state over pay, benefits and working conditions. Child care providers who did not want to join the union would still have to pay fees – likely in the same amount as the union dues.
A Democratic staff analysis of a similar bill last year estimated that the measure could cost taxpayers $60 million a year, which would probably mean cuts to subsidized child care for poor working single moms.
California doesn’t have the money to spend more on subsidized child care. As it is, existing health, welfare and education spending is being cut to balance the budget.
Paying people to care for their own kin started with welfare reform in the ’90s. Paying Grandma was cheaper than building new child-care centers or leaving single mothers on welfare.
If the governor signs the bill and it succeeds in driving up child-care reimbursements, working-class parents who don’t qualify for subsidies likely would pay more for child care.
This brings a whole new meaning to nanny state. Or should we call it a granny state?
This is just another measure by Democrats to extort political donations from individuals who disagree with the Democratic platform. As a teacher in NY I financially support a variety of Democratic politicians despite the fact that I almost completely disagree with all of them.
I wish we had a good way to help people pay for daycare - mine costs $2500 a month for two kids and it’s a stretch. I can’t imagine what I’d do if I made minimum wage.
A coerced union is not a real union. It’s just one more example of some people commandeering governmental power to their own benefit. Of course they claim high motives. They have an ideology and a rhetoric. And they gather a following of people who swallow it whole. I could say some disparaging things about those people, but they’re my friends and neighbors so I guess I ought to be polite.
Wow, pay money whether you choose to participate or not. I believe they call this a tax when government does it, and extortion when it’s done by anyone else. Nice to know California Democrats are still the party of liberty!
Worse than that, the state is the source of the money being diverted toward SEIU (obviously the intended sole “designated exclusive representative). The home care providers are merely being used to launder what would otherwise be a direct transfer from the state to the SEIU.
When it comes to racketeering, the California Democratic Party gives the mob a run for their money.