May 25, 2016
Los Angeles, CA—Employees at University Park Campus (UPC) Child Care Center, owned by KinderCare*, voted today to form their union with SEIU Local 99–Education Workers United, which represents early education, child care, K-12, and community college employees throughout Southern California.
UPC staff will now negotiate their first contract with their employer. They seek to resolve serious health, safety and maintenance problems at their child care center and to get UPC to adhere to teacher-to-child ratio standards. After several failed attempts to advocate for these and other improvements, teachers also say they hope to improve communication between management and classroom staff. These employees at the USC campus are believed to be the first group of KinderCare workers to successfully form their union. This positions them to advocate for improvements that can be replicated throughout the KinderCare system.
“We look forward to sitting down with UPC management. We hope they will quickly begin good faith union contract negotiations so that things can improve,” said Gina Sandoval, a center preschool teacher of 20 years. “This decision to unite and seek a voice at UPC came out of many late night discussions amongst ourselves outside of work hours. We were concerned about out-of-ratio classrooms and health and safety violations. After an investigation into these critical issues, the former center director was removed. We hoped for improvement after that, but instead witnessed what we felt was ongoing mismanagement.”
“Working people coming together to form unions has been a hot topic on the USC campus lately,” said Joshua Goldstein, an Associate Professor whose five-year-old daughter has attended the center since she was six months old. “Over the last four years, I’ve seen dozens of teachers leave UPC due to mismanagement. When the majority of teachers say they need representation, I trust them. They have my everlasting gratitude and wholehearted support for the role they play in making my daughter who she is.”
“We welcome these newest members to SEIU Local 99. They have shown their strong determination to have a voice in long overdue improvements,” said SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias. “SEIU members have worked hard to make sure children and families have access to quality early learning. Nationally, SEIU early educators have elevated quality child care as a major issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. We have also developed a pilot apprenticeship program to bring important professional development to the early education industry. We look forward to these new voices in our chorus. Welcome, UPC!”
Teachers and parents are available for interviews.
*KinderCare is the largest privately owned provider of child care in the country, co-founded by Michael Milken and his brother Lowell in 1996. In 2012, company revenues were about $1.45 billion.
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SEIU Local 99 represents nearly 40,000 employees in public and non-public organizations in early education, child care, K-12, and community college levels. SEIU Local 99 members are: Teacher’s Assistants, Playground Workers, Special Education Assistants, Bus Drivers, Gardeners, Custodians, Cafeteria Workers, Maintenance Workers, Family Service Workers, Child Care Providers, and others working in schools, colleges, and administrative offices throughout Southern California.
Contact: Terry Carter, (213) 700-5617; Blanca Gallegos, (213) 500-9594
