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CALIFORNIA LABOR: THE FOLKS THAT BROUGHT YOU PAID FAMILY LEAVE! Share the Care!
I’m sitting on a plane returning home from attending the
signing by California Governor Davis of the most comprehensive paid
family leave legislation in the country. The new law, which takes
effect in 2004, provides up to 6 weeks a year of partially paid
leave to care for a new baby or newly adopted child, or to care
for a seriously ill child, parent, spouse or domestic partner.
Two years ago we started working with the California Labor Federation,
which represents over 1300 labor unions and 2.1 million union members,
on paid family leave. We started organizing and educating union
members, advocacy organizations and other allies for a paid family
leave campaign. In Winter 2002 the California Labor Federation sponsored
legislation, authored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl, for paid family
leave through the State Disability Insurance system.
What the Law Provides
- Up to 6 weeks of paid leave a year to care for a newborn or
a newly adopted or foster care placed child or a seriously ill
parent, spouse, domestic partner, or child.
- Applies to employees already covered by existing State Disability
Insurance (SDI) system, meaning all California employees EXCEPT
certain categories of public employees.
- 100% employee funded. The program is fully employee funded and
employees will pay an average of $27 per year (A minimum wage
earner would pay $11.23 a year.)
- The benefit level is 55-60% wage replacement, up to $728 per
week in 2004. Maximum benefits are indexed to the state’s
average weekly wage.
- 1-week waiting period.
- Employer may require an employee to use up to 2 weeks of earned
but unused vacation leave before tapping into fund.
- Builds on existing SDI system. Under current SDI, employees
can get partially paid leave for their own serious illness or
for pregnancy disability.
- Creates no new employment rights. Under current law, employers of less than 50 are not required to hold a job for an employee who takes paid family leave.
As originally drafted, the bill provided for 12 weeks of pay and
the cost was to be split between employers and employees. Because
of heavy lobbying and opposition by the business community, the
bill was altered to its present form. However the Chamber of Commerce
continued to oppose the bill vociferously. The bill was also amended
to say that employers could require a worker to use 2 weeks of accrued
vacation time before taking the 6 weeks of SDI leave.
The Labor Project, with funding from the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation, played a crucial role in
the campaign by helping to organize and coordinate a statewide coalition
of unions and organizations representing seniors, women, child care,
children, health issues, legal advocates and others. The grants
also funded research by UC Berkeley economists on the costs and
benefits of a paid family leave program in California.
We are all excited by this victory and energized by the crucial
support of union members, advocates, business leaders, academics
and others who let their voices be heard in a thousand ways over
the past few months. We hope to continue to work with the California
coalition (Share the Care) on work and family issues as well as
assist other states on efforts to win paid family leave.
Onward!
Netsy Firestein
Editor and Executive Director
(Editor’s Note: To report on this extraordinary work/family
victory and our role in it, we have suspended our normal format
covering UNION NEWS for this issue.)
Does Your Health Insurance Plan Discriminate Against Women?
When a United Food and Commercial Workers’ union local in
Alabama asked a uniform supply company for contraceptive coverage
for its hundreds of employees, the employer initially said no. When
union members took a closer look at their health plan, they realized
that Viagra, the male impotence drug, was covered, while female
contraceptives were not. “If a health plan can pay to crank
it up, it better pay for the consequences,” the negotiator
announced. Subsequently, contraceptive coverage was added to the
contract.
Although this story instantly gets the reader’s attention,
the bottom line is it’s against the law for an employer to
not provide comprehensive contraceptive coverage in their health
plans if their health plans cover drugs and devices used to prevent
the occurrence of other medical conditions.
Two recent legal decisions declare that it is sex discrimination
to not cover it. A federal district court decision last summer and
an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decision in December
2000 both ruled that not covering contraception, when other preventive
drugs and devices are covered, violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act.
Many health care plans, including those that cover union members,
don’t include contraceptive equity. Most plans do, however,
cover abortion and permanent sterilization. The reason for this
discrepancy seems to be that abortion and permanent sterilization
are “surgical,” while reversible contraceptive methods
fall into the category of “preventive” and haven’t
been routinely covered.
Neither the federal government nor the 20 states that have state
contraceptive mandates proactively enforce the mandates. Thus, contraceptive
equity can only be achieved if health plan participants take action.
For the 13 million people who belong to unions in the U.S. (eighty-five
percent of them have health care coverage through their union contract),
their union is in a key position to secure this coverage. It is
up to union members, however, to take the lead in bringing it to
their attention and persuading them to take action.
The Coalition of Labor Union Women, an AFL-CIO support group, has
vigorously promoted contraceptive equity since 1997 and in the spring
of 2001 established the Contraceptive Equity Project to advocate
for comprehensive contraceptive coverage in all union health plans.
The Project is actively working to promote awareness of the issue
-- especially the lack of coverage in union plans – and to
urge union members to check their own plans and use the tools that
CLUW has put together to secure coverage if it doesn’t currently
exist.
CLUW and the Project played a major role in getting the AFL-CIO
to endorse contraceptive equity at its national convention last
December. The resolution not only urges all union-negotiated health
care plans to cover contraceptive equity, but it also calls for
passage of a national law -- the Equity in Prescription Coverage
and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC, S. 104), which would make
insurers liable It also calls for inclusion of Emergency Contraceptive
Coverage (the “morning-after” pill) in all plans. AFL-CIO
resolutions are not binding on affiliate unions, but their policy
on the issue encourages unions to follow through.
Passage of the AFL’s contraceptive equity resolution provided
a natural communications link for CLUW to the state federations.
As a result, a number of the federations have taken steps to educate
their affiliates on the issue. These include Washington, Arizona,
North Carolina, Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio with the
most outstanding work being done by the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, which
is an active member of the state’s contraceptive equity coalition.
The Project’s first major success in achieving coverage took
place the week before Christmas 2001 when SEIU Local 32BJ health
benefits fund, covering 70,000 building service workers in New York,
announced contraceptive coverage to its members. The union trustees
succeeded in pursuing the issue with management trustees. Two victories
in June of this year include coverage for the 4,000 members at Temple
University and nationwide coverage for UAW members at Daimler/Chrysler
(and the likelihood that the other two of the Big Three will soon
follow). The fact that it took only 7 ½ weeks for the overwhelming
majority of health plans to cover Viagra is instructive. CLUW believes
that once contraceptive equity is on an employer’s radar screen,
it can be included as quickly!
But, that won’t happen without union members checking to see
if they have this coverage and if they don’t -- make it an
issue. Union members must know the facts, as well as the legal decisions
and use both to gain contraceptive equity. For the Contraceptive
Equity Project “toolkit” and more information, go to
the CLUW website at: http://www.cluw.org/contraception/html
If you have any questions, contact Carolyn Jacobson, Contraceptive
Equity Project Director, at 202-223-8360, ext. 4 or cjacobson@cluw.org.
CLUW wants to know of successes so it can add local unions to the
Contraceptive Equity Role of Honor that will appear on the website.
(This article was written by Carolyn Jacobson, Contraceptive
Equity Project Director)
Know Your Rights Brochures, Equal Rights
Advocates. ERA has produced a series of brochures on Sex Discrimination,
Family and Medical Leave/Pregnancy Discrimination, Sexual Harassment
in the Workplace, Temporary Workers and Discrimination, Private Household
Workers’ Rights in California. The brochures include basic information
and resources. Some are available in Spanish. All are free up to 10
copies of each brochure. Additional copies are $.25 per brochure for
non-profits and $.75 per brochure for others.
To order, go to: http://www.equalrights.org/files/publicat.htm#know,
or fax orders to: 415-621-6744.
Labor Project Resources
Bargaining for Work and Family Fact Sheets. Child Care, Family Leave, Elder Care, Control Over Work Hours, Bargaining Questions on Work and Family.
Family Fact Sheet Series on family friendly laws in California including: Family and Medical Leave Act, Family-School Partnership Act, Overtime/Alternative Work Schedules, Sick Leave for Family Care, Pregnancy Disability Leave. Available in English, Spanish and Chinese.
Both available free. Call us at (510) 643-7088, download from http://www.working-families.org/organize/factsheets.html or email: ndones@uclink.berkeley.edu.
Work and Family Bill of Rights. Available at: http://www.working-families.org/organize/billofrights.html
Family Leave Resources
Report on Costs and Benefits of Paid Family Leave
Basic facts on paid family leave
Information about the bill
Supporters of the bill
http://www.working-families.org
Click on “Share the Care”
For more information, contact Greer McVay, Coalition Coordinator
at 510-643-5863.
Labor Family News is published quarterly by:
Labor Project for Working Families
2521 Channing Way #5555
Berkeley, CA 94720
Ph: 510-643-7088
Fax: 510-642-6432
lpwf@berkeley.edu
www.working-families.org
Netsy Firestein
Editor
Jenya Cassidy
Managing Editor
Reprints Permitted With Acknowledgement. Call
us for an email version.
