Gina Smith, who has worked as a nursery nurse for more than 20 years, argues that nursery nurses have lost out under the single status agreement and many have been forced to work longer hours to keep the same pay.
She told Nursery World, 'If I get over 100 signatures, the Prime Minister will have to respond.'
Pay and conditions for support staff vary from one local authority to another, which means that some nursery nurses and teaching assistants can earn several thousand pounds less than their counterparts in neighbouring areas.
Ms Smith has already collected 900 signatures for a petition calling for a national pay structure, which she sent to education secretary Alan Johnson last summer.
She said, 'Across the country our wages vary dramatically. One nursery nurse has told me she will have to work 43 hours and 11 minutes a week to earn the same money as before the single status agreement.
'Unless we get a national pay scale we will have anomalies around the country. People should get recognition for their qualifications and experience.'
She said it was unfair that someone with 20 years' experience and, for example, a foundation degree, could earn the same as someone who had just left college with an NVQ2.
In Sunderland, where Ms Smith works, all nursery nurses and teaching assistants will have to sign new contracts with new terms and conditions from 1 March.
Ms Smith said that hundreds of nursery nurses would be worse off. Nursery nurses are being moved from 32.5 hours a week on a 52-week contract to a 37-hour week and will be paid during term-times only.
This includes nursery nurses in special needs schools who will lose their special school allowance and face a pay cut of 331 a month, Ms Smith said.
The Government has set up a support staff working group to examine issues relating to workforce reform.
A letter sent to Ms Smith from a DfES official on behalf of the education secretary last November said that the support staff working group had submitted preliminary findings last April and on the basis of this had been asked to present more detailed plans to ministers on issues including pay and conditions for support staff by December.
However, Nursery World has learned that the group's recommendations have been delayed.
A DfES spokesman said, 'The support staff working group is still working on a review of the main staff employment issues and will present its findings to ministers shortly. The findings of the group have not yet been published.'
To join the campaign and sign the petition, log on to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/singlestatus.
