9to5 members and friends – Now is time to take action! Congress is voting this week and next on a bill that threatens to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA – Obamacare) and slash Medicaid, which together have reduced the number of uninsured Americans by many, many millions. Since the ACA became law on March 23, 2010, over 30 million have enrolled and more people in our country have health care coverage than ever.
International Women’s Day is getting more attention than usual in the U.S. this year. You can see it in the marches, rallies and strikes today, in the numbers of women at work wearing red, and in the diverse actions being taken nationwide for dignity, equality and respect.
Historically, this day was called International Working Women’s Day. Whether we balance two jobs just to (try to) pay the bills, take care of a sick parent, work a 9 to 5 job, or hold it down some other way, there are a million and one ways to be a working woman. Just as there are a million and one ways to fight what’s happening to all of us and move forward together toward justice.
This week, 9to5 and others who believe in common-sense solutions to personal medical and family care needs are celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA ensures that eligible employees may use up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year to care for the birth or adoption of a new child or for their own or a family member’s serious illness, while retaining access to their health care. FMLA was a great starting point, and it’s been used more than 200 million times to benefit U. S. families.
The Aspen Times By Jack Queen Mobile home parks can be integral components of a community’s affordable housing mix, but they also carry an element of instability: Residents typically own …
Colorado’s mobile home parks are disappearing, but a proposed bill would try to save them Read More
While we have a lot more to do to achieve full equity and economic security, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, will only take us backwards, something none of our families can afford.
“You’d think they want us to fail,” said Marta, a young mother in a Boston parents’ meeting. She was rocking a sleeping toddler as she explained that she couldn’t cover her bills working just one job. So she added house cleaning on weekends, but the small pay increase led to her subsidized rent being doubled and she was now facing eviction. “How am I supposed to make this work?” she asked the other parents who were shaking their heads with an understanding that can only come from having gone through it. Over the next two hours, we kept coming back to that question and heard the same response. The women agreed, people who make policy “just don’t get it.”
Wisconsin was a trailblazing state in the 1980’s passing the first state family and medical leave law. Today, Wisconsin has a chance to catch up with the national trend of paid family and medical leave insurance. In an op-ed printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug 3rd, 9to5 Interim State Director Astar Herndon makes the case for pending state legislation.
New polling in 15 states shows strong support for national policies that support working families. By a nearly two-to-one margin, 61 percent of voters in these states support the creation of a national paid family and medical leave fund, 69 percent support a paid sick days law and 57 percent support increasing access to high-quality affordable child care.
Last week was difficult for many of us at 9to5 and our economic and racial justice allies. The tragic police killings of two more Black men in less than 48 hours filled us with sadness, anger and fear. As a grandmother, it hurt my heart to see a four year old girl witness the murder of her mother’s boyfriend from the back seat of their car.
Our Wisconsin chapter is doing great work around #BanTheBox!
“As an organizer with 9to5 Wisconsin, I work with a huge population of women who are struggling to turn their lives around; to get and keep jobs after returning from prison.”-Nancy Yarbrough, 9to5 WI Chapter Organizer.
Check out Nancy’s Op Ed, published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
