Many employment conditions that we take for granted today, such as the eight-hour work day or laws against child labor, are the result of long labor movement struggles.

Unionized labor began with skilled craftsmen who wanted to preserve the value of their work, and who saw that as individuals they were at the mercy of business owners who set the value of their craft. By the 1930s, the focus of union activity was shifting from individual crafts to the entire workforce of particular industries; major gains grew out of major struggles by steel, textile, rubber and auto workers. The Wagner Act, passed in 1935, created the National Labor Relations Board to ensure labor's right to collectively bargain wages and working conditions with employers. After decades of growth, however, unions saw their membership decline during the 1980s, a trend that has continued into the 2000s.

But the 1980s also saw an increase in the unionization of professional and white-collar workers—particularly women.  Tight economic conditions, as well as expanded personal options, have led to a dramatic increase in the number of women in the workforce. But gender inequality in employment remains widespread in our society; the low pay and status of the almost exclusively female early childhood labor force is a prime example. Many women are joining unions as a way of promoting and protecting their equality as workers. Many are gaining access within their unions to leadership positions and decision-making authority that are still denied them in the work place.

In the education field, public school teachers have turned to unions in order to bring about improved working conditions and job security, a greater voice in school governance and policy and more public support for education. For many years, teachers had been trained to believe that it was unprofessional to associate with unions, because theirs was a "higher" calling. But by the late 1960s, most teachers had become convinced that just being "professional" was not going to improve their effectiveness as educators. They realized that they would not gain better wages and working conditions until those in control of public and private resources were forced to grant them. Forming the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), teachers moved from a "meet-and-confer" stage of expressing their opinions to administrators and school boards, to a "good-faith bargaining" stage of negotiating the conditions of their employment.

These victories, as well as those by nurses, school-related paraprofessionals, college and university faculty and staff, as well as other human service professionals, have inspired early childhood teachers in various parts of the country to organize themselves. The first child care union, called the Nursery School Teachers Union, was formed in 1949 in southern California; it is now a local of the AFT. Many other early childhood organizing drives have taken place since the early 1970s, particularly in Massachusetts, the New York City area, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Seattle, Wash.,area, and Wisconsin.

Deciding to join a union is a powerful one and you and your co-workers will need to grapple with many issues. Perhaps the most important will be the recognition that joining a union is only one step in effective organizing; advocacy for greater public support of early childhood education must be an ongoing commitment.