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Tell Chicago Public Schools: No Rape Music at Prom

April 24, 2013
I vividly remember my high school prom. We were dressed like adults and many anticipated the chance to play the part. Do you remember the scene: doey-eyed teenagers and whispers of all the possible places to spend the rest of the night without adult supervision? For young people, the energy of the...
Anayah Sangodele-Ayoka's picture

The Time is Now for Federal Action on Paid Sick Days

April 24, 2013
Susan, a single mother in Missouri, has a 10-year-old son who has pneumonia. She wants to stay home and care for him, but she cannot because her boss refuses to let her take the day off and she is terrified that, if she misses work, she will lose her job. She has no choice but to leave him home...
Debra Ness's picture

Disney vs. Democracy

April 24, 2013
Mickey Mouse now has a side gig as a corporate lobbyist?! Apparently. Because right now in Florida, in the final days of the state legislative session, the Orlando Sentinel reports that Disney is working to make it impossible for local Florida cities and counties to pass earned sick time laws. [ 1...
Ruth Martin's picture

Why Health IT is Truly the Cat’s Meow (Cat photo included)

April 24, 2013
Those of us who work in the health IT world spend our days analyzing policies, creating advocacy strategies, and talking about meaningful use criteria, quality improvement, and care coordination till we’re blue in the face. But how does that play out when we leave the office? More often than not,...
Elina Alterman's picture

Serious MOMentum for Working Families, Public Health: A MomsRising.org and AFL-CIO Blog Carnival on Paid Sick Days

April 24, 2013
The Healthy Families Act , a federal bill that would allow workers to earn seven paid sick days a year, was just introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Portland, Ore., was the most recent city to pass an ordinance granting workers earned paid sick leave. Will New York follow suit? The...
Ruth Martin's picture

Swimming Against the Current

April 24, 2013
Last night, I had a dream about Howard Street. When I was growing up in Chicago's East Rogers Park, Howard Street was the edge of the known universe. That was where the neighborhood changed and white people didn't venture. The Chicago of my youth was a segregated city, as divided as the deep south...
Lauren Reichelt's picture

All Kids Make Mistakes

April 24, 2013
According to the FBI, only five percent of kids who get arrested have committed a violent crime, but the other 95 percent often face the same fate. In fact, the U.S. incarcerates its kids at a rate that is at least five times the rate of any other nation. As a result, many of these kids witness...
Mistakes Kids Make's picture

Paid Sick Time is a Basic Right

April 24, 2013
As President of the New York City Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) , I represent over 1.3 million workers across many industries and professions in the private sector, public sector and building and construction trades. Many of these workers have the benefit of collective bargaining agreements that...
Vincent Alvarez's picture

Paid Sick Days Matter to Me

April 24, 2013
Sick days matter to me as a mom. I am a single mother so I have always been the parent who gets those dreaded calls -- the daycare number pops up on your phone and your heart sinks into your stomach. "Your son is sick, you need to get him now." My son is 8 now, so he is past the sick-every-five-...
Charlie Rose's picture

No One Wins When Low-Wage Immigrant Workers Have No Paid Sick Days

April 24, 2013
As one of 11 kids in a migrant farm worker family, I toiled in the fields of California’s Central Valley under the bleakest of conditions in the 1950s and ‘60s, before Cesar Chavez’s movement offered us any relief. Getting sick or injured or showing symptoms of pesticide poisoning were not options...
Maria Elena Durazo's picture

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