Beginning in January of 2007, child care providers from around Kansas came together to build a union and offer a powerful voice for providers all across the state.
The efforts of those providers have been wildly successful. Our union, Child Care Providers Together - AFSCME, has won an historic and unprecedented agreement with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services (SRS) that protects our work, recognizes the vital importance of the service we provide to working families across the state and promotes our role in developing an even better system for child care in the future. Our agreement with KDHE and SRS reflects our collective voice and growing power to protect the interests of child care providers and make a real difference in the lives of the families we serve.
Over the weekend of August 16 and 17, about one hundred members of CCPT from around Kansas gathered in Wichita for a Founding Convention by which they formally created a Local Union. Providers in attendance approved a local union constitution and made nominations for four officer positions and three trustee seats. Kansas CCPT-AFSCME is now officially affiliated with AFSCME Council 72, which covers the states of Kansas and Missouri.
With its official founding accomplished, the thousands of providers who comprise CCPT have continued the critical task of advocating for progress for child care providers. CCPT members are hard at work growing membership in their own regions, becoming engaged on behalf of pro-child care candidates in the 2008 eklection, and talking to their elected officials about the issues of utmost importance to Kansas child care providers.
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For more information about Kansas CCPT-AFSCME or for ways to join the union and get involved, call Don Zavodny at (316) 943-0678.
3219 W Central Ave., Wichita, KS 67203
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Kansas Child Care Provider News & Action Alerts
Kansas Child Care Providers Hold Founding Union Convention, (8/21/08)
Committee on Childrens' Issues to Explore Topics of Interest to Kansas CCPT, (8/25/08)
