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Work. Family. Conflict. Resolution?
The realities of our workplaces have not changed to meet the new realities of our economy and society, says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker. Employers and political leaders must create new policies that help working families deal with their basic needs of feeding their families, caring for their elderly parents, paying the mortgage.
Speaking this afternoon to a conference on the “Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict,” sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Holt Baker said, “Our families are trying to live in two different worlds at the same time—and it is just not working.”
Most people—men and women, across race and class—agree that the changing status of women is a good thing, now that we are half the workforce and have the opportunity and the weight of being breadwinners. But we also agree that something’s got to give.
The conflict between work and family is no longer between men and women, Holt Baker said. “It’s between families and the systems that are not meeting our needs.”
To meet the needs of today’s working families, she said, we need public policies that support working families. We need employers to change with the times. And workers need the power to shape work-family policies at our workplaces, which means more working people must be able to form unions and to bargain for what they we need on the job.
On the public policy front, Holt Baker called for giving workers more flexibility to care for their families by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give employees the tools they need to close the wage gap between men and women and provide the government with enforcement power to correct pay inequities. Another, the Healthy Families Act, would require most employers to provide full-time workers seven days of paid leave a year if they’re sick or have a sick family member, with prorated benefits for part-timers.
Congress also must ensure employers do not use this new flexibility as an excuse to reduce wages and take away workers’ rights, Holt Baker said.
Flexibility is meaningless without a good job, decent wages and benefits. Public policy has to protect workers’ pay, job security and basic workplace rights while expanding flexibility.
It’s also time for employers to recognize that family-friendly workplaces are more productive and profitable, she added:
It’s time for them to recognize that the costs of doing the wrong thing really do outweigh the costs of doing the right thing. The cost of not providing paid sick leave is an unhealthy, unhappy workplace. The cost of not enabling working people to meet their family responsibilities is high and expensive turnover.
The key to gaining a family-friendly workplace, Holt Baker said, is for workers to be able to join unions freely:
When workers can bargain, they can change their working conditions and do it equitably across the workforce.
Even as the union movement focuses on creating new jobs, this is the right time to push for policies that support working families, Holt Baker said. In answer to a question during a panel discussion, she called for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, federal legislation to level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, as the necessary step for workers to regain a solid place in the U.S. economy.
We have the clearest evidence of our lifetimes that this economy has failed working families. It may be working for people who speculate for a living—but not for people who work for a living.
So while the labor movement’s focus is on getting America back to work, we know the longer term solution is to build a new economy responsive to the needs and realities of working people. Resolving the conflicts between work and family must be part of that agenda, and the time to get to work is now.
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Paid Sick leave
I asked my boss for a day off, because my child was sick.
I said make it a sick day, vacation, or you can pick.
She said hire a nurse or get some one else to stay!
Come to work right now or you will get no pay!
I weighed the choice she gave me, it was oh so very clear,
My darling baby daughter needed her mother to be near.
So I stayed home after we went to see the Doc.
Loosing one days pay would only put me in hock.
To my surprise, on my return she was now going to write me up!
I was now to be on attendance control and better not screw up.
The next absence, a suspension and a couple of days without pay;
For taking care of my baby daughter this is just not fair I say.
Not any paid time off for the family that they cannot take away.
No vacation, Paid time off or any time; it is just not right I say.
No, No, says the Boss our sick leave is only just for you.
We won’t pay you and you can’t use your vacation too.
You better be here every day; we have work for you to do,
Or with our attendance control we’ll just get rid of you.
The ideal employee is one who is Single By Choice.
Company employees should sing in one single voice.
.
We did not hire your Family, not mom, dad, husband or wife.
No Family commitments! Now that’s for all your working life.
If you get sick or have a family don’t bother to apply.
You must be here each and every day until your fired or die!
There ought to be a law to stop policies like that!
I went to see the CONGRESS and to have a little chat!
Don’t look to congress, REPUBLICIANS WANT NO mandates,
Nor will you get any help from THEM IN THE legislatures in your states.
Working families, we need to lobby congress and the legislatures too.
We need a law so are jobs are protected when our children gets the flu.
Don’t loose heart we fought back and we did win at the ballot box.
We got a new sick leave law in San Francisco, the city that rocks.
We won in San Francisco you can win in your city too.
We can win in the states; but it will take work to win there too.
In the House and in the Senate the bills have been put in..
Stick together and fight for our families and together we will win.
By David G. Hurlburt, CWA Local 9410 Steward
One Sick Kin Away From Being Fired
It is hard for a family to make both ends meet,
Both of us working so we are not on the street.
Minimum wage workers need every single dime;
They also need some emergency kin care time.
We work hard, and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick child away from being fired.
Why can’t we use sick leave to care for our kin,
When the Bosses fires us for that is a just a sin.
Not any time off, with pay, for short time family care;
When the roll is called up yonder will these managers be there?
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick spouse away from being fired.
Companies protect and defend at all costs their mighty corporate right;s
So when you take time off for your family, be prepared to join the fights.
Working families, we need to lobby congress and the legislatures too.
We need a law so are jobs are protected when our child gets the flu..
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired,
Just one sick parent away from being fired.
Providing time for families doesn’t cost it will pay.
It reduces turnover because more employees stay.
It, increases loyalty, dedication and it is caring and kind.
A benefit employees value and it’s one that’s hard to find.
We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick self away from being fired.
Too many times we’re fired and end up in the street.
Loss of jobs or pay and our bills we can’t meet.
Bankruptcy from medical bills or the loss of a job,
We loose heart and hope and our kids learn to rob
You can pay to build families or tear them apart.
The dollars spent on sick leave are just a start;
Childcare, after school programs to care for our kids
And medical care for every one even those on the skids.
If you don’t do these things you will still pay the price.
In court costs and prisons and that is not very nice.
A nations economy must serve all the people in the land;
Not greed or the wealthy, government must take a stand.
The social safety net is not just for the poor,
It protects us all from the thief at our door.
By David G. Hurlburt CWA local 9410