SFU Child Care needs to play and pay fairly
Early childhood educators reject employer's demands for concessions
July 23, 2007
BCGEU

Early childhood educators at SFU Child Care Society say they are unwilling to accept employer concessions, and have voted 95% in favour of taking strike action if necessary to back their bargaining demands. The workers, who are members of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, provide child care services to 260 families in the Simon Fraser University community.

"Our members are through with taking inferior wages and benefits to subsidize child care costs for other families," says BCGEU President George Heyman. "This employer's offer falls far short of the fair wages and benefits these professionals deserve.

"The employer must demand, as our union is doing, that government provide the proper funding needed to keep parent fees affordable, and to support the wages and benefits required to keep early childhood educators from leaving the field," says Heyman. "Simon Fraser University and the community it serves must also join in sending the message to government to step up with the necessary funding."

The employer, the SFU Child Care Society, wants a four-year agreement with a bonus in lieu of a wage increase in the first year, followed by a 1.5% wage increase in each of the next three years. It is also demanding caps and concessions on benefits that would see workers alone bearing the cost of any future premium increases. The employer's offer does not restore in any measure the cuts to wages and benefits these workers were forced to take when the Campbell government slashed funding in 2003.

The union is seeking a three year collective agreement with wages and benefits equal to those earned by early childhood educators under current community social services agreements. This would restore many benefits and bring wages from the current $16.24 to $17.91 at top of scale by the end of the agreement.

The BCGEU has represented early childhood educators at the SFU Child Care Society since 1974, and currently represents 67 members in the dozen programs the society operates. Close to 1000 families are on the waitlist for child care services with the society.