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UNION NEWS
PARENTS GET ADOPTION
SUBSIDY
The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers
(HUCTW) won adoption subsidies of up to $5,000
per child to offset the cost of adoption-related
expenses, which can include legal fees, international
travel, hospital and court costs. There is no
limit to the number of children a member can adopt.
Along with parents of newborns, adoptive parents
can get 4 weeks of paid parental leave (Full pay
for members with 7 years of service; 70% for members
with less than 7 years) and 13 weeks of job-protected,
unpaid leave. (Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical
Workers & Harvard University)
FACULTY PARENTS
GET A SEMESTER OFF
Full-time faculty members at the University
of Massachusetts who become biological or adoptive
parents of a child under the age of five are
eligible for one semester of paid leave. The
member must use any accrued sick leave during
this time and apply for FMLA to run concurrently.
If it becomes medically necessary to extend
the leave, the member can draw on the sick leave
bank for more paid days off. (Massachusetts
Society of Professors/MA Teachers Association
& University of Massachusetts)
PARENTS STOP
TENURE CLOCK
Members of the California Faculty Association
can stop the tenure clock for any year during
which they take parental leave for a new child.
Parents of a newborn or adopted child are also
eligible for 30 days of paid parental leave.
New parents must apply for parental leave within
60 days of the birth of the baby or the placement
of an adopted child in the home. (California
Faculty Association & California State University
Board of Trustees)
PARENTS WIN CHILD
CARE LEAVE
Teamsters Local 572 won child care leave for
members with young children. The leave is unpaid
and intended for the care of children under
the age of three. The maximum leave allowed
is thirty-nine (39) calendar months. Leave requests
must be made at least 10 days before the leave
takes place. The employee is returned to a position
in the same class. The contract covers a number
of job classifications including accountants,
bus dispatchers, and data entry operators. (International
Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 572 & Los
Angeles Unified School District)
AIRLINE EMPLOYEES
CAN JOB SHARE
Members of the Canadian Auto Workers Locals
1990 and 2213 have the option to reduce their
work hours by participating in a job share with
another coworker. The member must find the other
participant and both must commit to the agreement
for 6 months. Both members receive full time
benefits but vacation is pro-rated. (Canadian
Auto Workers Local 1990, 2213 & Air Canada)
Adoption: Unions
Win Benefits for New Parents
By Jenya Cassidy
Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi and her husband Belkacem
dreamed of adopting a child for a long time but
found the costs prohibitive. In 1998, Belkacem
and Christina started working at Harvard University
and learned about the union-negotiated Adoption
Assistance Program. The following year they were
able to adopt a little boy, Saad Ali, from Morocco,
Belkacem’s native country. “Saad Ali
was 6 months old when we held him for the first
time. We would not have been able to realize the
dream of starting a family without the benefits
negotiated by the union,” said Christina.
In 2002, the Nahis were able to use the benefit
again to adopt a second child, a little girl named
Aya.
Christina and Belkacem are members of the Harvard
Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW),
a leader in winning family-friendly contract language
including adoption benefits. The union is part
of a rising trend in the labor movement: as more
couples choose to adopt, unions are negotiating
benefits to help them with the process. HUCTW
has negotiated the following adoption benefits
with Harvard: 4 weeks paid parental leave for
birth and adoptive parents; the ability to negotiate
additional time for parental leaves using vacation,
personal or unpaid time; and an adoption subsidy
of up to $5,000 per child to off set the cost
of adoption-related expenses.
Communications Workers of America (CWA) has successfully
negotiated adoption benefits as well. CWA District
1 representing Verizon employees recently increased
adoption assistance from $5,000 to $10,000. In
addition to financial assistance, CWA locals have
negotiated parental leave for adoption and part-time
work after birth or adoption for a year with full
benefits. “Our members really appreciate
the assistance with adoption,” said Donna
Dolan, CWA staff representative for District 1.
“Often it’s a lot more expensive than
people assume it will be. But, there is a growing
interest in adoption and we are committed to assisting
members who want to start families.”
Couples and single people wanting to adopt find
that it is not only expensive, it takes time.
“When we first looked into adopting, there
was leave for the primary care-giver (usually
the mother),” said Christina Safiya Tobias-Nahi.
“We let the union know that for foreign
adoption, both parents needed to be present. They
went back to the bargaining table and got paternity
and maternity leave. I see it as an equity issue
– an expectant mother has maternity leave
as well as bonding leave. Adoption can be just
as lengthy a process.”
According to the National Adoption Information
Clearinghouse, while adoption benefits have not
kept pace with maternity benefits, more companies
are starting to offer them. It can be a way to
create good will without a high cost to the company.
Monty Clemmer, Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters,
Local 1145 in St. Paul, Minnesota, agrees: “We
got Honeywell to offer adoption assistance (up
to $3,000 per child). It’s a great benefit
and it doesn’t cost management much either
– if we have 2,000 members and 4 use the
benefit this year, that’s not a big expense
for the boost in morale it gives the workers.
People who don’t use it feel more pride
and connection to their workplace and the people
who do, well, it can change their lives.”
British Union Launches
Campaign to Benefit Parents and Caregivers
“Supporting Parents and Carers”
is the slogan for a major campaign in 2005 for
the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
(USDAW), Britain’s fifth largest trade union.
The union set out to address the work/life balance
for its 339,000 members. According to the union,
their members told them loud and clear that balancing
work and being a parent or caregiver is one of
their main concerns. Most USDAW members are shop
workers -- they also represent members in transport,
distribution, call centers, home shopping, food
manufacturing, dairy process, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
“Everyone is a carer, whether it be
children, elderly parents or dependent relatives,”
said John Hannett, General Secretary of the Union.
“The aim of the campaign is quite simple:
to put the needs of parents and carers at the
heart of our negotiating strategy and every agreement
we sign.”
The campaign leaders want to find out what parents,
caregivers for parents and/or dependents need
from their union. Once they’ve discerned
the needs of the membership, union negotiators
will meet employers armed with the arguments for
better maternity/paternity pay, paid family leave,
childcare arrangements that best benefit parents
and shift patterns that reflect the day-to-day
uncertainty of caring for others. On the political
front they will be working closely with their
legislators to press for changes in the law that
will make caregivers’ lives easier. It will
not be an easy campaign, but the rights of parents
and caregivers are now firmly on the union agenda.
For more details of the campaign, go to http://www.usdaw.org.uk
* Adapted from press release - USDAW website
Canada Labour Leads
Movement for National Child Care System
Organized labour in Canada is playing a
significant role in the movement for a national,
non-profit child care system. And it looks like
Canada’s child care advocates are the closest
they’ve been to realizing their dream of
a national system of early learning and care.
The Canadian government has promised $5 billion
over five years for a national program and plans
to negotiate the system’s framework with
provincial and territorial governments in January
2005.
But promises for a system have been made—and
broken—twice in the last 20 years, and activists
are taking nothing for granted. A broad coalition
that includes child care advocacy groups, unions,
parents and providers has been working non-stop
to make sure the politicians get the essentials
right from the start.
“Incredible
mobilization is happening across the country from
coast to coast,” said Jamie Kass of the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers, who co-chairs
the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada’s
Council of Advocates. “We’re writing
letters, lobbying at the provincial and federal
levels and have launched a campaign to send toy
building blocks to the politicians along with
a message outlining the fundamentals of a good
system.”
These fundamentals are:
- Public, sustained funding
- A Child Care Act guaranteeing standards and the principles of quality, universality, accessibility, developmental programming and inclusiveness
- Public accountability tied to concrete implementation plans
- Non-profit delivery
For labour, a child care system is important for providing access to working parents, especially women, to quality, dependable and affordable child care. Unions also believe that the system must be non-profit in order to better respond to the needs of families, not the bottom line.
There is no doubt that Canada needs a national child care system. A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Development criticized the fragmented, poorly funded and marginalized state of child care services in most of Canada, and recommended progressive government policies and sustainable public investments. For advocates, this only confirms what they’ve been saying for decades: governments must take the lead and act to solve the child care crisis in Canada. For more information: www.childcareadvocacy.ca.
WORK
AND FAMILY - FIRST STEPS
GOOD JOBS includes work and family supports like
quality child care, use of sick days to care for
a family member, paid family leave and flexible
work hours that the worker controls. Here are
some FIRST STEPS to begin addressing these issues.
1. BUILD SUPPORT
- Find your allies
Talk informally to other members. Who is having child care problems or cares for an elderly parent? Who needs time off for a sick family member? - Contact the community services liaison at
your labor council
Can they assist you? Have other union locals have addressed similar issues? - Find a champion
Is there a leader in the union with small children or an aging parent they take care of? Will they commit to addressing these issues?
- Review your current contract
What family-friendly provisions do you already have? Is there language on flexible schedules or family leave or a dependent care flexible spending plan? Make sure members know about the provisions. - Find out what other unions have done.
What challenges were their members facing? How did they address the issues? What obstacles did they face? Are there possibilities to collaborate with them? - Identify the resources in your community
Gather information on local resources such as child care resource & referral agencies and department on aging. Make the information available to your members. - Research family-friendly laws.
Are you covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act? Can you take unpaid time off for school activities?
- Use your local union structure to form a committee.
- Diversify the committee
The committee should be representative of your membership i.e. men and women, parents of young children, members taking care of elders, gays and lesbians, various ethnic groups, and single people. - Conduct a survey
A survey can identify the challenges parents and adult caregivers face every day. Ask about absenteeism, lateness, sick time, etc due to work and family responsibilities. - Set achievable goals
A long-term goal might be building a child care center. But a short-term goal is to get members hooked up with a child care referral service in the community. - Develop solutions
Think outside the box. For example, collaborate with other unions to encourage child care centers to extend their hours to accommodate your hours of work.
-
Get work & family issues on the bargaining
agenda
Include questions on the bargaining survey that don’t rate these issues alongside wages, healthcare, pensions, etc. Work & family issues should be part of the union’s overall agenda for good jobs. Then propose specific contract language. -
Work with the union to promote family-friendly
laws in your state.
Support local coalitions working on family leave or child care funding. Get your union and state federation to sponsor or support legislation for family friendly policies.
For information on contract language, surveys and family friendly laws, contact the Labor Project.
Note: Adapted from our new manual on work/family available in early February. Contact us for more information.
LEGISLATIVE NEWS
Bush Pushes New
Overtime Rules Through: Setback for Working
Families’ Paychecks
It was a long and hard fight but on November
18th, facing a presidential veto threat, Republican
members of Congress removed important overtime
pay protections from final 2005 spending bills.
What this means: Against the will of a majority
of both houses of Congress, Bush has forced
through new overtime eligibility rules under
the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) that affect
the overtime pay rights of millions of workers.
Example: Many administrative employees, team
leaders, employees with even minimal supervisory
responsibilities (such as working foremen) employees
with computer-related duties, employees who
perform some sales work outside the office,
certain workers with creative control or any
decision-making duties, and many others will
no longer qualify for overtime. The fight to
protect workers’ overtime rights will
continue “in state legislatures, the courts
and in Congress.”
To find out if you are one of the newly “exempt”
from receiving overtime pay under the Bush administration
rules, go to http://www.workingamerica.org/issues/ot_quiz.cfm
Canada Law Allows Time Off to Care for the Gravely
Ill
Now eligible Canadian workers who take time
off work to care for a gravely ill family member
can receive six weeks of Employment Insurance
(similar to unemployment benefits in the US)
benefits over a period of six months. Their
jobs will be protected.
The benefit, entitled “Compassionate Care,”
applies to all workers entitled to Employment
Insurance benefits who need to provide care
or support to a gravely ill family member with
a significant risk of death within 6 months.
The basic benefit rate is 55% of the workers
average insured earnings up to a maximum payment
of $413 per week. Employees can receive compassionate
care benefits to care for a close family member.
Employees can apply for the benefit to provide
care themselves or use the time to arrange for
care by a health care professional. For more
information go to http://www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/
RESOURCES
Helping America's Working
Parents: “What Lessons Can We Learn from
Europe and Canada?"
This paper, by Janet C. Gornick and
Marcia K. Meyers, addresses several myths about
international work/family policies and makes
a clear argument for applying international
policy lessons in the United States. The U.S.
lags far behind other nations on paid family
leave, working time regulations, and affordable
child care. When it comes to negotiating work
and family, parents in the U.S. have a much
narrower range of options than parents living
elsewhere. The new report provides compelling
data and a number of policy proposals to address
the growing pressures on working parents. A
summary issue brief is available at
http://www.newamerica.net/Download_Docs/pdfs/Doc_File_2059_1.pdf
Sloan Work and
Family Research Network Newsletter
The Network News is now available on line. The
Sloan Work and Family Research Network, with
the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
and Boston College, serves a global community
of individuals interested in work and family
research by providing resources and helping
build the work/family community. Upcoming issues
of The Network News will focus on:
- Careers
- Older Workers
- Generation X and Generation Y Employees
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.
