The recently settled contract agreement between District Council 1707 early childhood care providers and New York City benefits over 4,000 of their union members.
District Council 1707 Local 205 educators provide critical services to young children yet they had been paid much less than teachers in the city school system. The contract extension will benefit 4,241 early childhood education employees with over 10,000 students in their care and serve as the model for remaining certified early childhood education providers. The tentative agreement provides a pathway to pay parity between certified early childhood education teachers. This agreement builds on the deal reached in 2016, which provided the first comprehensive salary increases since 2006 for day care employees.
“There are few things as valuable as early childhood education and our youngest New Yorkers deserve the very best,” said Mayor de Blasio. “With this agreement, we’re ensuring whether you’re in one of our schools or teaching in a community based organization, you get the same starting salary. That means our kids and parents can rest assured that they’ll always have our best teachers in the classroom.”
“This deal ensures that certified teachers who work in community based organizations will earn the same starting salary as their DOE colleagues. More importantly, this deal enhances the educational opportunity of our City’s students by helping to provide stability in their classrooms, instead of losing effective teachers due to the lack of pay parity. All NYC teachers deserve the same pay, the same benefits and the same respect, and when we provide pay parity in education, we provide better educational opportunities for our students,” said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
This pathway to pay parity will help community based organizations recruit and retain qualified staff in the future. The tentative agreement covers the period through September 30, 2022. While DC 1707 workers are employed by contract providers who are members of the Day Care Council, New York City is a key party to negotiations and funds the union contract as well as these early childhood education programs in New York City.
“I want to thank the Mayor for his leadership, in recognizing the need to rectify this on-going problem of paying public center-based educators less than their counter-parts in the DOE. I also want recognize the members of the City Council and advocates for their support. Together we made history,” said District Council 1707 Executive Director Kim Medina.
The agreement must be ratified by DC 1707 Local 205’s membership.
