Governor Dayton – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SEIU, AFSME and the MFT – has formally pulled back on his push to unionize in-home daycares.

That’s “formally”.  Dayton The unions that own Dayton want those 11,000 monthly dues workers.

The Strib publishes an op-ed by a couple of daycare providers who are fluffing for the Union:

To us as family child-care providers, the care and education of Minnesota’s children isn’t just a business opportunity. It is a vocation. We provide a supportive and loving environment for the children we serve, allowing parents to go to work without worry.

Right.  That’s what we pay y’all for.  And pay and pay and pay, as I remember from my kids’ earlier childhood.  I’m told it’s worse today.

When state government shut down last summer, many of us were forced to decide whether to stay open without receiving Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) payments or temporarily close our doors. A lot of us stayed open so that parents could keep working.

We needed to make a case to the state of Minnesota that CCAP funding was vital and necessary for all who received it. We needed a strong voice at the State Capitol. We joined together to ensure that the needs of children and their working parents were heard.

You joined together – as citizens frequently do.  It’s a First Amendment right, in fact.

We’ll come back to that.

More recently, we read the Oct. 3 commentary “Too many questions on day care union.” The authors, state Sens. David Hann and Mike Parry seemed puzzled by the question “what is the problem we’re trying to solve?”

Well, to be honest, Senators, one of the most important problems we face is the fact that many at the Capitol aren’t aware that there is a problem.

And after reading this op-ed, I’m still pretty convinced that the only “problem” this solves is “plummeting union membership”.

In forming a union, we seek to have a stronger voice as we advocate for one another and for the families we serve. We would have the opportunity to share our concerns more effectively as an industry.

Well, thanks, but no.  I am not aware that parents – your customers, not your management, by the way – are paying you for “advocacy” or for “sharing as an industry”.  They – we – want our kids taken care of, at a reasonable price.  We can “advocate” for our kids just fine.

We could ensure that the state, as a partner with us, is fully aware of the challenges we face as we continue to improve and standardize how we care for Minnesota’s kids.

And there’s another problem; I don’t want the state as a “partner” in caring for my kids (if I had any in daycare); I want them tucked safely away in the background.

And if you are talking about advocacy in dealing with the various state daycare support programs that providers depend on when working with low-income families?  Then form a group that, unlike the unions, isn’t a de-facto wing of state government itself!