AUBURN – About 2,200 home-based child-care providers will decide this month whether to unionize and join the Maine State Employees Association.

Proponents say a union will give providers a needed voice in state rules regarding child care.

“It’s a great way to bring family child-care providers together,” said Ruth Burke, owner of Tweetie’s Tot Care in Auburn.

But opponents say a union will do nothing more than jack up prices and make quality day care unaffordable.

“This hurts parents and children,” said Brian Johnson, policy director for the Alliance for Worker Freedom, an anti-union group based in Washington, D.C.

Since 2005, at least 10 states have allowed child-care providers to unionize. Three of those states, Illinois, Oregon and Washington, have approved union contracts.

The Washington-based Service Employees International Union, which is affiliated with the Maine State Employees Association, brought up the issue with Maine child-care providers last year. A union would unite home-based providers, many of whom receive state money for caring for low-income children and all of whom are regulated by the state.

“Sometimes the state rules don’t make practical sense,” said Avril Smith, spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union-Maine State Employees Association. “(With a union), the state would have to sit down with providers and talk about these issues. They would have a seat at the table.”

As an example, Burke points to recent changes Maine made in the way it determines day-care quality.

High-quality centers get more state money and state-subsidized parents can take a larger tax break if they send their children to those high quality centers. The state recently changed its “high quality” criteria and upped the standard. Burke believes some providers have gone through extensive training and inspections to be considered high quality but will lose that status if they don’t do more now.

“In essence, folks are going to realize a loss,” Burke said. “What a union will do for us is open a line of communication. That’s the kind of thing we’d like to be involved with.”

Burke, who is also president of the Maine Family Child Care Association, believes a union will also earn home-based child-care providers more respect – particularly by the Department of Health and Human Services, whose workers are already part of the Maine State Employees Association.

“We’ll be on the same team,” she said. “We’ll be sisters and brothers in the union.”

But at the Alliance for Worker Freedom, Johnson calls the organization of home-based child-care providers “absolutely ridiculous” and says the Service Employees International Union is pushing to organize child-care providers for one reason: money.

“Private sector unionship has been on the decline,” Johnson said. “They’re opening a net and trying to wrangle people in any way they can.”

If child-care providers join the Maine State Employees Union, he believes they’ll essentially go from being independent contractors to state employees, and he fears they’ll be in a position to demand insurance from the state.

And although union proponents deny they’ll set prices, Johnson fears they’ll ultimately band together to increase their fees, forcing parents to either pay up or move their children to lower-priced, lower-quality day care.

“They’re putting the children at risk,” Johnson said.

His group has fought child-care unions in other states, with little success.

“We hope this isn’t a trend that continues with Maine,” he said.

Child-care providers have received their union ballots by mail and are voting now. Just over half must approve it in order to form a union. Votes will be tallied and the results released Oct. 22.

If child-care providers approve a union, the governor or Legislature must agree to give the group collective bargaining rights.