November 30,2006 e-Exchange

“A Dialog Among Organizations Working to Build a Family-Friendly America”

Circulation: 185

November 30th, 2006

*The e-Exchange welcomes entries from all of the MomsRising aligned organizations and individuals. To submit an entry to the e-Exchange, contact: olivella@ix.netcom.com. To learn more about the e- Exchange, please go to the end of this edition. Feel free to forward the e-Exchange to others who might want to subscribe.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click any of the lines below to go directly to those sections)

A. Join a MomsRising Advisory Group—An Easy Way to Extend the Reach of Your Initiatives and Expertise

B. Delta Kicks Woman Off Plane for Breastfeeding—Moms React in Force!

C. Spotlight on An Issue: Paid Sick Days…Very Healthy Developments

D. Spotlight on A Proposal: Minimum Paid-Leave Proposal to Ensure Vacation Time in U.S.

E. Media and Online Coverage of Mothers and Family Issues

• 20/20: Elizabeth Vargas Reports on Working Mothers

• NPR, All Things Considered: Pennsylvania Moms Fight Hiring Bias

• CNNMoney.com: Paid Sick Leave May Be Next Big Cause

• The Nation: The Breastfeeding Scandal

• The Huffington Post: Quotes from the MomsRising Aligned Organizations

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A. Join a MomsRising Advisory Group—An Easy Way to Extend the Reach of Your Initiatives and Expertise

We want you to advise MomsRising! MomsRising is working to build a dynamic online movement that can help further your organization’s goals and initiatives. To this end we’re developing ways for experts from aligned organizations to alert MomsRising about timely and priority issues that we can broadcast to the grassroots base—this includes your current projects and campaigns, as well as legislative matters that you think would benefit from on-line grassroots organizing. We are calling together six advisory groups on the issues framed by “M.O.T.H.E.R.” See below:

M: Maternity and Paternity Leave (Paid Family Leave)

O: Open, Flexible Work

T: Television & Other After-School Programs

H: Healthcare for All Kids

E: Excellent Childcare

R: Realistic & Fair Wages

What is involved: MomsRising is planning a non-time consuming way for people to be involved in the advisory groups. A couple of times a month we will send emails to the groups asking for updates on programs and legislative campaigns in their fields. We will then use their responses in outreaches, and via other aspects of our web technology. If the advisory groups envision other ways to partner with MomsRising so that we can help them extend the reach of their organization’s mission, we would welcome that as well.

Want to join an Issue Advisory Group? Contact Kristin at Kristin@momsrising.org. The more, the merrier (and the more effective!)

B. Delta Kicks Woman Off Plane for Breastfeeding—Moms React in Force!

On November 16th, in response to news that a ticket agent forced a mother off a Freedom Air flight (run by Delta Air Lines) for breastfeeding on-board, MomsRising put up a petition (that can still be signed!) In less than a week the petition gathered over 20,000 signatures telling Delta Air Lines that breastfeeding mothers should be supported, and telling Congress to support the Breasfeeding Promotion Act.

Emails and calls from MomsRising members, as well as regular updates from MomsRising about the high number of petition signatures, helped push both Delta and Freedom Airlines to issue statements underscoring their commitment to allowing women to breastfeed onboard planes. Freedom Air also noted that the incident would serve as a training opportunity for all employees.

NEXT STEPS: At the request of MomsRising, Delta Airlines is contemplating officially supporting the Breastfeeding Promotion Act which is currently before Congress. So please give Delta a call to thank them for taking a strong stand on behalf of breastfeeding mothers, and encourage Delta to actively support the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. Getting more signatures on the petition helps let our leaders know that citizen support is strong. To sing the petition (and to ask friends to sign on), go to: http://www.momsrising.org/breastfeeding-petition.

C. Spotlight on an Issue: Paid Sick Days…Very Healthy Developments

Paid Sick Days Election Perspectives from Jodie Levin-Epstein, Center for Law and Social Policy:

Victory. In San Francisco the ballot initiative to provide workers with a minimum standard for paid sick days won with a wide margin – 61 to 39 percent. The new law requires employers in the city to give their workers 1 hour of leave for every 30 hours worked -- up to a maximum. Larger businesses are required to provide 9 days while smaller firms are obligated to provide 5 days. Employers can provide workers with more days. Workers are allowed to use the time for their own health needs as well as the needs of family members. The San Francisco coalition was lead by Young Workers United, Parent Voices, and the Chinese Progressive Association, among others. The San Francisco law is the first in the nation for a city and builds on efforts in Madison, Wisconsin. The San Francisco law is expected to gain national attention as states and the federal government takes up bills to ensure working conditions that provide a minimum standard for sick days for workers.

Congress and Co-sponsors. In the House and Senate, more Members have become co-sponsors of the Healthy Families Act, which provides for 7 days of paid sick days as a national minimum standard. Under the HFA, part time workers would get a pro-rata amount of days off. Firms with fewer than 15 employees would be exempt. Currently there are 15 co-sponsors in the Senate and 71 in the House. After the 109th Congress adjourns, the HFA will be reintroduced sometime early in the 110th session in 2007.

MomsRising will post an HFA action on their website which will urge members to contact their Congressional delegation and thank those who are co-sponsors, and urge those who are not yet co-sponsors to do so. Of course, there’s no need to wait for your own aligned organization to try and drum up more co-sponsors. The Hill newspaper, Roll Call, predicts that the Congressional lame duck session may well last well into December.

Sick Days Legislation: A Legislators Guide

Laura Boyd, Women Legislators Lobby, and Jodie Levin-Epstein, Center for Law and Social Policy

Sick Days Legislation: A Legislator's Guide is a new, joint publication by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and Women Legislators Lobby (WiLL). The Guide is intended to help legislators think through the provisions that make up paid sick days legislation. It identifies ten primary issues to consider when moving from a hypothetical idea to concrete legislation, and it offers several possible options for addressing each. Here's the link for this guide: http://www.clasp.org/publications/paid_sick_days.pdf.

D. Spotlight on a Proposal: Minimum Paid-Leave Proposal to Ensure Vacation Time in U.S.

From Gretchen Burger, Take Back Your Time:

Vacation time is becoming an endangered species in America. Many of us (including 37% of women earning less than $40,000 per year) get no paid vacation at all. And that is why we are very excited to share with you Adventure Travel Trade Association's (ATTA) endorsement of Take Back Your Time's and Work to Live's (http://www.worktolive.info/) minimum paid-leave proposals to ensure vacation time in the U.S.

ATTA is partnering with Take Back Your Time and Work to Live in support of proposed legislation that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to grant three weeks of paid time off for anyone who has worked at a job for a year. Unlike 96 other countries, the U.S. has no law governing vacations. ATTA's endorsement sends a strong message to government, employers and employees alike: time off is critical to the health of individuals and organizations.

"The U.S. government must recognize its role in helping people seek and find balance to spend more time with their families and friends, more time in the outdoors and more time to do things like volunteer and travel," says ATTA President Shannon Stowell. To view the press release of this announcement, click here: http://www.adventuretravel.biz/release110106_wtl.asp

E. Media and On-Line Coverage of Mothers and Family Issues

• 20/20’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports on Working Mothers: On November 10th, Elizabeth Vargas featured a segments asking: “Can Women Have It All?” See: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2641588&page=1

• CNNMoney.com: “Paid Sick Leave May Be Next Big Cause”: See this November 17th article at: http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/17/news/economy/prop_f/index.htm?postversion=2

• NPR, All Things Considered—“Pennsylvania Moms Fight Hiring Bias”: This November 21st show featured the Pennsylvania struggle against the currently legal practice of maternal profiling in hiring practices. Listen at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6520840

• The Nation--The breastfeeding scandal: November 27th report on Delta’s response to MomsRising and others’ organizing efforts regarding a woman being kicked off the plane for breastfeeding. http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20061127/cm_thenation/15143332

• The HuffingtonPost: Quotes from the MomsRising Aligned Organizations

In the days after the election, MomsRising asked the aligned organizations to submit comments analyzing the election. These comments were then compiled and e-mailed to the MomsRising membership. The HuffingtonPost.com also picked them up.

Below is a sample of just a few of your quotes--for a complete listing go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristin-rowefinkbeiner/wowie-wow-wow-leader_b_33752.html)

"America resoundingly called for a new direction Tuesday, and young people were no exception. According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, young voters turned out in record numbers this year--24% of voters aged 18-29 made it to the polls, up from only 20% in 2002. Early signs show that their voice will be taken seriously in this new Congress. From student loans, to clean energy, to a better deal for working families, politicians are taking notice of issues young people care about. For this progressive generation, that's a welcome change."

-- Andrew Cox, The Roosevelt Institution

"Tuesday's election results--six states raising minimum wage, San Francisco passing paid sick days, a vote for change across the nation - show that voters want to see a political agenda that supports working families and expect elected officials to take action."

-- Linda Meric, Director, 9to5, National Assn of Working Women

"In Illinois we re-elected a governor who has been a champion on issues like making health care and universal pre-school available to all children and raising the minimum wage. Clearly, there's more work to be done to help ease the time and economic pressures today's parents face. But, thanks to Governor Blagojevich, we're paving the way for Illinois to be among the family-friendliest states in the nation!"

-- Rhonda Present, ParentsWork

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About the MomsRising e-Exchange: The e-Exchange is a project of MomsRising.org, which is building an on-line grassroots political movement to improve our country’s treatment of mothers and families.

The purpose of the e-Exchange is to provide linkages among MomsRising's aligned organizations which are some of the nation’s strongest women's organizations, family advocacy groups, mother’s organizations, child advocacy groups, unions, health care organizations, parenting groups, faith-based organizations, and others which have missions to better the lives of mothers and families.

The e-Exchange is a place where these organizations can share information and think together about movement building strategies. The content of the e-Exchange is based on what members contribute.

To submit an entry to the e-Exchange or to subscribe/unsubscribe, contact mary@momsrising.org. To see a list of the aligned organizations that are part of this e-Exchange, go to MomsRising.org and click ‘About MomsRising.’ Feel free to forward this e-Exchange to others who might want to subscribe.