March Organizing Roundtable Features Presentation on Massachusetts Early Educators United

 

The Organizing Roundtable in March featured a presentation by Tom Clarke, lead organizer for Massachusetts Early Educators United (MECEU), a joint organizing effort spearheaded by the American Federation of Teachers of MA and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. MECEU is a unique new union that brings together teachers, administrators and owners of early education centers to work on each other’s behalf and advocate for the betterment of early education services throughout the state.

 

The goal of the organizing campaign is to form a non-traditional bargaining unit through state legislation that will allow the approximately 20,000 early childhood education workers in Massachusetts to collectively bargain with the state over wages, benefits and professional development. Right now, the average wage for a teacher in the early childhood education field is approximately $11 per hour with little to no benefits. The ability to collectively bargain would provide a living wage to these underpaid workers who do the invaluable work of educating our children before they enter the public education system.

 

A union also gives early childhood educators a collective voice at the State House to advocate for public funding for early learning programs, giving more children the opportunity to get a leg up on their education. Child care is currently the second leading expense for families in Massachusetts, and many cannot afford to give their children the opportunities that an early learning center provides.

 

There are now five MECEU organizers working on the statewide campaign, signing up members at the more than 2,300 early education centers located throughout the state. Organizers will continue to sign up members to give workers in this industry a collective voice as they work to pass legislation allowing them to collectively bargain.

 

To learn more about MECEU, please visit http://ma.aft.org/earlychildhood.