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AUSTIN — One local daycare provider is applauding Gov. Mark Dayton’s decision to allow Minnesota’s in-home child care providers to vote on whether to unionize.

Michelle Morehouse, owner of Cozy Cove Childcare in Austin, said allowing daycare providers like Little Angels long daycare to unionize would boost the field as a profession and give providers a voice.

“I think it’s really important we have a voice in our industry,” Morehouse said. “We are self-employed, but so many decisions are made for us, and this way we’d have a seat at the table.”

Dayton announced the executive order Tuesday, and many Republicans said they don’t think Dayton has the authority to issue a vote on providers’ unionization.

“There is nothing in Minnesota law that provides the governor with the power to do the thing that he says he’s going to do,” said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services committee.

Dayton, a Democrat, said he hasn’t received a definitive legal opinion but “my belief is that it is within my legal authority.”

Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea, said he disagrees with Dayton’s decision to allow the vote.

“These are small business owners. How do you tell a small business owner they need to become part of the union?” he said. “These small businesses set their own rates, they set their own working condition, they set their hours. What is a union going to do for them other than charge the monthly dues?”

Given that some providers want to authorize a union and some don’t, “the fairest way, and the American way, to resolve that dispute is through an election,” the governor said. He said he rejected requests to simply mandate union representation, as has been done in other states.

Out of 11,000 home-based providers in Minnesota, union officials said 4,300 licensed, registered, subsidized family child care providers will be eligible to vote. Dayton said providers that operate solely on private funds would not take part in the vote and would not be affected, no matter what its outcome. He also said that even if a union is authorized, membership would be voluntary.

Morehouse said union representation would give daycare providers more access to health care and affordable training.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.