Public Employee Press

Study says day care helps working families

DC 37, along with Teamsters Local 237 and Local 1199, is participating in a study funded by the City Council, looking at selected groups of parents and their experiences with child care.

On June 9, Moira Dolan, of DC 37’s Research and Negotiations Dept., presented a report on the Working Parents for a Working New York Child Care Project at a national labor-management conference in Washington, D.C.

Dolan said the DC 37 group chose Health and Hospitals Corp. employees in locals 420 and 1549 for the study to document the relationship between child care demands and work performance. Research, conducted by Cornell University, has completed the base line study of DC 37 members.

The median age of participants is 37. The group is 87 percent female, 50 percent black and 28 percent Hispanic. The largest group of children is of school age and the second largest group is toddlers. Sixty-eight percent of the study group use informal, unlicensed care, usually provided by a relative or a neighbor. Nearly 10 percent use center-based care. Although a mayoral commission has called for expanding the city’s supply of safe, affordable child care, ACS-funded child care centers are being closed or consolidated.

So far, the interviews show that the lack of accessible, reliable child care impacts on lateness, time on tasks, disciplinary action and overall job performance. Continued research will compare employer data with workers’ self-reports. The study, supported by the New York Union Childcare Coalition, and sponsored by Councilmember Bill de Blasio, is awaiting news of City Council funding for the study.

The Facilitated Enrollment Project has received state funding through March 31, 2009, and covers 1,339 children, 500 DC 37 members’ children. One requirement of the continued funding is an evaluation of the project. Participating families will be contacted for their feedback.

For more information about the availability of subsidized child care on a borough-by-borough basis for income-eligible parents, visit the union’s Web site at www.dc37.net/about/services/daycare.html.