By Doug Cunningham

A robust union organizing effort nationwide is aimed at home child care workers, and that effort could ultimately add hundreds of thousands of new union members. The biggest success so far was in Illinois where 49,000 workers were organized by SEIU. Ten thousand were organized in Washington state by SEIU. In California and Pennsylvania, SEIU and AFSCME are cooperating in a unified child care organization. Efforts are also underway in Iowa, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Oregon, and Maryland. There are roughly 550,000 child care workers nationwide who could potentially be organized.