Child care hearing rescheduled

Gov. Mark Dayton will wait another month to fight a judge's temporary restraining order that delayed his plan for a unionization vote among state-subsidized child care workers.

A hearing was originally scheduled for January 17 to decide whether Ramsey County Judge Dale Lindman's order should be converted into a temporary injunction. Now, a summary judgement hearing is scheduled for February 22.

During an unrelated news conference today, Dayton said that the plaintiffs in the case requested the delay. He said both he and AFSCME, one of the labor unions trying to organize providers, agreed with the request.

The Childcare Freedom Coalition, a group opposing the unionization effort, issued a news release describing the summary judgement hearing as a way to streamline the legal process.

"We won a restraining order and the next step was a temporary injunction, then a permanent injunction," said coalition spokesman Jeff Davis. "By granting our request for summary judgment, the judge is cutting through all of that. The case has already been argued and it's time to put this to bed. This move will save us as well as Minnesota taxpayers needless added time and expense."

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