|
UNION NEWS
California Union
Wins Sick Leave for Grandchildren
The California Higher Education Staff Union recently
negotiated the right for members to use sick leave
to care for a sick spouse, parent, child and grandchild.
Members are allowed to use sick leave for family
members “up to the extent allowed by state
law”, which is currently half the sick leave
accumulated each year. (California Higher
Education Staff Union & California Faculty
Association)
Detroit Firefighters
Expand Definition of Family
Detroit firefighters secured an expanded definition
of family within their sick leave provision that
allows members to take up to three days of sick
leave to care for a family member. The term “immediate
family” includes husband, wife, children,
father, mother, brothers, sisters and any relatives
living in the same household, no matter what the
degree of relationship. (International Association
of Firefighters Local 344 & City of Detroit)
Wisconsin Professionals
Win Sick Leave for Families
The Wisconsin Professional Employees Council,
AFT successfully negotiated for the use of accrued
sick leave to cover a variety of situations. This
includes up to 5 days for the emergency care of
ill or injured family members, up to 5 days to
care for a newly adopted child, and to care for
a wife and child the week immediately following
childbirth. Members can also use sick leave for
medical and dental appointments for their spouse,
child, parent or other dependents, that cannot
be scheduled outside of working hours. (Wisconsin
Professional Employees Council, AFT & State
of Wisconsin)
Tampa’s ATU
Eliminates Sick Leave Backlash
In its bargaining contract with the City of Tampa,
the Amalgamated Transit Union successfully negotiated
a sick leave provision that protects the right
to take sick leave without negative consequences
in the workplace. As long as the sick leave is
authorized, the union member will not receive
any negative comment concerning attendance on
his/her next performance evaluation. Members can
also take up to forty hours of sick leave per
calendar year to care for an ill child, spouse,
other legal dependent, parent or family member.
(Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1464 &
City of Tampa)
Canadian Public
Employees Can Take Sick Leave for Child Care
The Canadian Union of Public Employees contract
contains a Primary Care Leave provision that allows
members to take up to 3 days of sick leave to
deal with unforeseen child care responsibilities.
The leave can also be used to cover medical emergencies.
The leave cannot be taken before it is accumulated.
(Canadian Union of Public Employees & Air Canada)
Sick Kids: Working
Parents Face Challenges
By Nikki Dones
“Parents should have the right to leave
work to care for a sick child.” Senator
Edward Kennedy
It’s 7 a.m. You’re out of bed, showered
and fixing your daughter Jennie’s breakfast
when she comes to the table with a 101 fever,
feeling miserable. You’re expected at work
in 2 hours but Jennie’s sick. What are your
options?
If you are lucky enough to have sick leave benefits
and you live in California, Connecticut, Hawaii,
Minnesota, or Washington, state law allows you
to take a portion of your sick leave to care for
Jennie, or another family member. If you are a
public employee, there are 21 states that allow
you to utilize sick leave for a family member.
If you belong to a union you probably have sick
leave that you can take. AFL-CIO data shows that
currently 80% of union women have paid sick leave
benefits* and unions continue to expand upon,
and improve, sick leave provisions in their bargaining
contracts. Unions have negotiated sick leave to
include family members (including grandchildren),
other reasons for taking sick leave and protection
from workplace repercussions for exercising the
right to take sick leave. (See Union News section.)
If you are one of the 47% of working Americans
that do not have paid sick leave, there is some
hope on the horizon. Sick leave for families is
an issue that Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) feels
very strongly about and, later this year, he will
introduce a bill that could become the first federal
law to guarantee sick leave for employees and
their families.
As currently written, the bill allows for a minimum
of 7 paid sick days a year for an employee or
a family member (pro rated for employees working
less than 30 hours a week), use of the state definition
for “spouse”, and protection from
being penalized for taking leave. According to
Senator Kennedy, “Parents should have the
right to leave work to care for a sick child.”
As such, he believes America needs to embrace
a new model of the workplace that values the needs
of parents.
Today, the options for taking care of a sick child
are few. In conducting research for her book,
The Widening Gap, Jody Heymann discovered that
only 42% of working parents were able to stay
home when their child was sick, but only a quarter
of those staying home had sick leave benefits.
The rest had to use vacation, unpaid leave or
had to take advantage of flexible work hours.
Of the 58% of parents who didn’t have the
option of staying home, many had to send their
sick child to school or leave them at home, alone.
Until the right to sick leave becomes a reality,
what will you do about Jennie?
For more information on Senator Kennedy’s
view on sick leave, visit http://kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html
(look under issues/work and family)
*AFL-CIO unpublished data, 2004
Work and Family:
Vital to Unions, Vital to Working People
by Karen Nussbaum, AFL-CIO
Picture this: there is great social turmoil
around the 8 hour day; tens of thousands of people
are in the streets; there are many small strikes
and a number of big strikes; and there is division
among political leaders on how to respond. If
you said I was talking about the beginning of
the last century, you would be right. And if you
said I was talking about the beginning of this
century, you would also be right.
Vital to Unions
Unions have a long history of
struggling to make work respond to family needs:
From the fight to limit the work week 150 years
ago; to the network of child-care centers set
up by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers
Union in the 1960s, which made them the biggest
private-sector provider of child care at the time.
Today, more than ever, unions are fighting for
progress on issues such as work hours, paid leave
and child care:
- • The United American Nurses went
on strike nearly 50 times in the last three years
over the issue of mandatory overtime and staffing;
• A $60 million Work and Family Program negotiated by the UAW and Ford set the high water mark;
• The California Labor Federation’s priority on paid family leave resulted in winning this sweeping reform in a record one year’s time.
Our members tell us that work and family is important to them.
- • 90% of all workers say it is essential
or very important to have time off for a new
baby or sick family member and sick leave without
losing your job, yet more than a third of workers
say employers do a poor job in protecting those
rights.
• Time pressures are acute. More than one out of four women regularly works nights or weekends, and nearly half of all couples work split shifts, which results in higher divorce rates. And 61% of young workers say that employers fall short on policies that help working parents.
The response to the Bush proposal last year to eliminate overtime pay for millions of workers demonstrates the power of these issues to working families. More than 1 million e-mails, letters and faxes were sent by e-activists on overtime pay. There were an unprecedented number of visits to Congressional Representatives and Senators on this issue.
The old refrain “…Eight
hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight
hours for what we will,” expresses an
ideal as urgent to working people now as it
was 100 years ago. Policy makers would do well
to respond to work and family priorities for
today’s working people and their organizations.
Taken from remarks given at the
Congressional Briefing for “Take Care
Net”, October 31, 2003.
Legislative Updates
New Jersey Bans
Mandatory Overtime for Health Care Workers
After a 5-year battle, New Jersey healthcare
workers led by Health Professionals and Allied
Employees, American Federation of Teachers (HPAE-AFT),
won a state ban on mandatory overtime. The new
law went into effect in February 2004 and prohibits
hospitals and nursing homes from forcing overtime
except in federal, state or local emergencies.
The law covers workers who provide patient care
or clinical services and includes nurses, nurses'
aides, pharmacists and medical technicians.
According to the AFT publication, “Health
Wire,” the union is hoping that the New
Jersey law will prove a first step towards other
states passing similar legislation and a national
ban on mandatory overtime. "The bill is
a critical step in addressing our healthcare
worker shortage," said HPAE president Ann
Twomey. "We are pleased that New Jersey
will end the practice of having stressed, exhausted
nurses caring for large numbers of patients.
We intend to make sure that healthcare workers
everywhere in the nation are also protected
from this unsafe practice." New Jersey
joins Washington as the only two states with
any ban on mandatory overtime. But there is
a growing movement against forced overtime.
West Virginia recently passed a similar measure
that the governor is expected to sign, and several
other states are considering legislation.
Woolsey Bill
Addresses the Needs of Working Parents
“If we can cut taxes for the richest Americans;
if we can preemptively go to war;…, we
can give families the tools they need to be
both responsible parents and reliable employees.”
Rep. Lynn Woolsey
In early February, Representative Lynn Woolsey
(D- CA) introduced legislation that would help
Americans balance their work and family lives.
According to Representative Woolsey, the “Balancing
Act,” HR 3780, is designed to help working
parents find a balance between their work and
family lives. Woolsey’s legislative package
seeks to improve the lives of working families
by:
- • Providing paid leave for new parents,
school events and family emergencies
• Improving the quality and availability of child care, in-school nutrition, and after school assistance
• Funding voluntary, universal pre-school
• Encouraging a family friendly workplace by promoting telecommuting and extending benefits to part time workers.
In a press conference in early February, Woolsey
noted that the changes in the American family
from having one breadwinner to having both parents
work outside the home are a generation old,
yet “our government hasn’t been
responsive to these changes. We need a comprehensive,
holistic approach to family policies. If we
can cut taxes for the richest Americans; if
we can preemptively go to war; and, if we can
even think of sending a man to Mars, we can
give families the tools they need to be both
responsible parents and reliable employees.”
For more information on HR 3780, visit Representative
Woolsey’s website: http://woolsey.house.gov.
To help build support for the bill, call your
local representative and ask them to support
for HR 3780.
Union Child Care Fund Helps Balance Work and
Family
by Mary Ann M. Ward, Ph.D.,
1199 SEIU/Employer Child Care Fund
During the fall of 2003, the 1199 SEIU/Employer
Child Care Fund celebrated its tenth anniversary
and conducted its first large-scale survey project.
Each year, the Fund provides eligible members
of Local 1199, the healthcare workers’
union in New York City, child care benefits
such as day care vouchers, after school vouchers,
and summer day camp programs. Other noteworthy
programs the Fund provides are:
- Holiday programs, which provide child care during the weeks in February, March/April, and December when the public schools are closed;
- Work Force 2000, a program at New York University (NYU) that helps adolescents meet the challenges of high school, make career choices, and prepare for college; and
- The Future of America Learning Centers, which provide subsidized, year-round, accredited child care based on a sliding fee scale.
The following are some of the key findings from the project:
- Of the nearly 13,000 children whose parents provided information on them, about half were school-aged (i.e., 5 to 12 years old), slightly more than one-third were young children (i.e., birth to 4 years old), and one-fifth were adolescents (i.e., 13 to 17 years old).
- The three most commonly received benefits were Day Care Vouchers, After School Vouchers, and Summer Day Camp Programs.
- Summer Day Camp Programs, in particular, were highly praised because they offer flexibility in balancing work and family responsibilities, opportunities for meeting other children, and skills training for children, such as swimming lessons.
For more information about the 1199 SEIU/Employer Child Care Fund and its programs, please visit: http://www.1199ccf.org.
The Union Child
Care Fund Builds Support for the Union!
SEIU/1199 Members’ Comments:
“1199 has done so many things for its
members. Child care is one of the most important
services we need to improve our work life.”
“This is my third year applying. I was accepted
the first year and the money was of great help
for Tahilia’s day care fee. I did not have
to be behind all the time and I worked less overtime
so I could spend more time with my baby.”
“My friends can’t believe that you
paid for my daughter to go to camp. Without this
I couldn’t have worked this summer.”
“I am exceptionally impressed with the running
of this program. Its operation seems so well organized
in view of the fact that you are servicing thousands
of families. I AM PROUD OF MY UNION.”
Unions
Present at Alliance for Work-Life Progress Conference
Two Transit Worker Unions –
TWU Local 100 from New York City and ATU Local
192 from Oakland, California gave a presentation
on the innovative family and child care programs
developed from negotiated labor/management funds
at the annual Alliance of Work-Life Progress conference
in Phoenix, Arizona in February. The Alliance,
a national organization committed to creating
work/life balance, brings its national membership
together once a year to share ideas and strategies.
Presenters: Veronica Brown, Child Care Coordinator,
TWU Local 100, Vanessa Turner, Acting Family Care
Coordinator, ATU Local 192, Don Ellison, HR Manager,
AC Transit, Oakland, Nikki Dones, Program Associate,
Labor Project for Working Families.
In Memoriam: Susan
Eaton, Work and Family Advocate/Labor Educator
Susan Eaton, friend, teacher and
colleague of the labor and work and family movement,
died on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 of complications
from leukemia. Eaton worked for 12 years as a
union negotiator, trainer, and manager for the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
AFL-CIO, and labor councils. Susan completed her
Ph.D. in Industrial Relations and Organization
Studies at the Sloan School of Management at MIT.
She wrote on the sociology of work organization,
healthcare management and quality issues, work-family
policy, and gender equity. From 2000 until her
death in 2003, she was Assistant Professor of
Public Policy at Harvard University - John F.
Kennedy School of Government.
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.
