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.” Read the rest of this entry »
Family and Medical Leave Extended to Flight Crews
Airline flight crews will soon have the same family and medical leave coverage other working Americans have enjoyed since 1993. The House of Representatives approved legislation yesterday amending the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow airline pilots and flight attendants to qualify for leave. The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it.
The FMLA requires state agencies and private employers with more than 50 employees to give workers up to 12 weeks off to care for themselves or a family member. But because of the unique way their work hours are counted, pilots and flight attendants have found it difficult—if not impossible—to meet the 1,250-hour-per-year threshold required for FMLA eligibility.
Helping Women Workers Helps Us All
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Delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention today took steps to further secure basic workplace rights for working women, who make up 40 percent of the global workforce, but suffer a disproportionate amount of discrimination on the job. Women also are sexually assaulted on the job and denied the time to take care of family responsibilities.
Resolution #14, ”Women, Work and Family,” says equal treatment of women is essential on the job and throughout society.
United Steelworkers (USW) Vice President Fred Redmond put it this way:
“Employers must provide equal pay for work of equal value and ensure that women have safe workplaces free of violence and sexual harassment. Government must abolish discrimination against women. Every segment of society shares the duty to respect and protect maternity and parenting.”
The resolution calls on the U.S. government to ratify several International Labor Organization (ILO) standards on organizing and bargaining, equal pay, abolition of forced labor, prohibitions of gender discrimination, ending child labor, maternity protection and protecting workers with family responsibilities.
It also commits the federation to work to pass the Healthy Families Act to provide paid sick leave, expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, enact the Paycheck Fairness Act and reduce financial and other barriers to higher education for women.
These are not actions that just help women, said Flight Attendants-CWA President Patricia Friend.
The resolution speaks to decent work for women and men. All workers should be able to work without fear of discrimination. There is no better time to move forward to bring fairness to the workplace.
Parental Leave Bill for Fed Workers Advances
Federal workers would be allowed four weeks of paid family leave to care for a newborn or adopted child under a bill approved by the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday.
But the relatively routine markup did have its bizarre, sure-to-be-a-Daily-Show-with-Jon-Stewart moment, when one committee member warned that federal workers might abuse the bill by adopting children year after year to get those four weeks off with pay. More on that below.
House Panel OKs Paid Family Leave for Federal Workers
Federal workers could receive four weeks of paid family leave to care for a newborn or adopted child under a bill approved by a U.S. House subcommittee yesterday. If enacted, the bill also would allow federal workers to use up to eight weeks of accrued paid sick time or annual leave immediately following the first four weeks of parental leave.
Says AFGE President John Gage:
The time has come for the federal government to set the standard for U.S. employers on paid parental leave. The benefits to children and families of four weeks of paid parental leave are enormous and long lasting. This sets an example for private sector employers.
Rule Freezes Bush Move on Chemical Safety, Can’t Stop Family Leave Change
Just hours after President Barack Obama took office yesterday, the Obama administration put the brakes on dozens of pending and just-issued rules and regulations the Bush administration tried to ram through at the last minute.
Bad news: The action couldn’t stop changes in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) implemented last week that make it harder for workers to take the leave.
Good news: The move blocked a proposed rule that could lead to increased exposure of workers to dangerous chemicals and toxins by changing the way worker exposure is measured.
BushWatch: 3.5 Days and Counting…
More than 20,000 AFL-CIO union volunteers are planning to heed President-elect Barack Obama’s call to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
In our retrospective of eight years of BushWatch this week, we’ve looked back at the outgoing president’s more egregious vetoes, executive orders and decisions on the economy, workplace safety, health care, workers’ rights and other issues. Click here, here, here and here for parts one through four.
Today we present a potpourri—a grab bag of sorts—of randomly bad actions highlighted on BushWatch:
- As part of a last-minute push to implement a slew of new federal regulations before leaving office, the Bush Labor Department issued new rules that make it more difficult for workers to use family and medical leave.
