NEW YORK, NY June 08, 2006 —Governor Pataki has vetoed a bill that would have allowed thousands of home daycare providers to join a union. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: The mostly female workforce provides daycare out of their homes to thousands of children from low income families. Complaining that their wages are too low and that they lack health insurance and pension benefits - the group has been pushing to unionize for several years. The United Federation of Teachers has been backing them.

Brigid Caruth is a home daycare provider in the Bronx and says she wants to become a member of the powerful teachers union:

CARUTH: they're already representing teachers and we are the first teachers of the children so everything would be under one umbrella. They know what they're doing.

REPORTER: In his veto statement, Governor Pataki said the measure would have jeopardized more than 300 million dollars in federal funding and inappropriately classified private sector employees as public employees.