A Republican legislator demanded Tuesday that DFL Gov. Mark Dayton halt a child care provider unionization election, saying some voters are wrongly being left off the rolls.
In a letter to Dayton, state Rep. Tara Mack, R-Apple Valley, said the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) compiled a list of voters that is too small, resulting in what she says is an advantage for pro-union forces. The mistakes "will result in significant disenfranchisement of independent child care providers who deserve a voice," Mack said.
Dayton dismissed the complaints in a Tuesday news conference as the latest effort to stymie providers' efforts to organize. "This is one more of these harassing tactics," he said. "Why not let there be an election and why not let the workers decide for themselves? That to me is the American way to proceed."
The letter is the latest twist in a deeply partisan battle over whether state subsidized child care will be unionized.
If eligible child care providers vote yes, they will join AFSCME, a major public employee union and a strong backer of DFL candidates and causes. The union would collectively bargain on behalf of providers who receive state money to care for children under the Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP.
"There are too many variables that seem fishy," said Hollee Saville, owner of Happee Hollee's Preschool and Childcare in St. Michael, where 19 children are cared for. "It throws up red flags and reeks of political payback."
The election caps a three-year struggle that began in the 2013 legislative session to unionize personal-care attendants — who voted to unionize in 2014 — and now child care workers. Republicans said the bill was a DFL power grab to help unions win members and dues money to help their DFL friends in political campaigns.
AFSCME spokeswoman Jennifer Munt said the Republicans' latest effort to stop the organizing campaign would itself amount to "disenfranchis[ing] the women who care for Minnesota's poorest children."