SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has approved a first-time contract with 40,000 childcare providers under a new collective bargaining agreement.

It acted at a time when labor unions are struggling across the United States. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill that ratifies the contact with Child Care Providers United and increases wage rates.

It also begins phasing in 200,000 subsidized childcare slots that advocates say are crucial to reopening a state economy pummeled by the pandemic, because they allow more parents to go back to work.

The bargaining agreement also empowers caregivers who are primarily women, many of them women of color.