From Moms Rising (https://www.momsrising.org/):
Many of us probably remember catching chicken pox from a sibling—and maybe having your mom rubbing calamine lotion on you before leaving for work and instructing you to not scratch and to get some rest. She’d might call throughout the day to check on you, but you wouldn’t see her again until after she returned home from work. That’s because she didn’t have any family and medical leave to use to stay home and take care of you.
Now we have a vaccine for chickenpox, but we *still* don’t have a national paid family and medical leave law in place in the United States and moms are *still* forced to choose between staying home from work to care for their children or going to the jobs they need because we lack paid leave. This current situation is ridiculous: All other industrialized nations have this policy, we can too.
The truth is that everyone has a story like this. And right now we’re asking you to share your story about paid leave because we’ll be delivering those stories to Congress and urging them to act quickly to pass Build Back Better with paid leave so that stories like this don’t keep happening.
Go to https://action.momsrising.org/sign/FMLAtwentynine to urge the US Senate to take action NOW!
Many of us had mothers who worked long hours for low pay. The irony is that at times, these mothers were often unable to provide the same level of care for their families as for others not because they didn’t want to but because they were forced to choose between earning a much needed paycheck and caregiving responsibilities. That was true years ago, and it’s true now too.
In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic, these stories have become all too common. Parents and caregivers are facing impossible choices and their families are getting the short end of the stick. The one solution we have is passing a national paid family and medical leave program.
Can you imagine how much more powerful we could be if we all shared our stories and showed members of Congress that caregiving is the work that makes all other work possible? Birthing parents need time to recover from childbirth, working families need to provide care for older loved ones and those with disabilities in times of health crisis, and parents need time to care for their children when they have the chicken pox or when a serious health issue arises. In order to provide care to our families, it’s evident that we need paid family and medical leave.
This has been a long road. Twenty-nine years ago Congress made history and passed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This trailblazing legislation was a win for workers and their families, allowing employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job protected leave but it’s not enough. Although the FMLA has been utilized more than 200 million times and benefited moms, their spouses, partners, children, elder parents and disabled loved ones, [1] only 56 percent of Americans are covered by FMLA. [2] More than 49 million private sector employees are excluded from FMLA’s protections and many working families cannot even afford to take unpaid leave. [3]
While the FMLA was the first step towards helping working families maintain their jobs while taking time off to recover from a serious health issue or care for a new child, it’s not enough. Families like ours are in desperate need of policies that work for them, one that will allow them to maintain their jobs while addressing their caregiving responsibilities. As we commemorate yet another FMLA anniversary, let’s also use this as an opportunity to demand more. We won’t sit idly by for another 29 years waiting on Congress to pass paid family and medical leave. We have the opportunity NOW. The U.S. House passed the Build Back Better Act with paid family and medical leave, now it’s up to the U.S. Senate.
Action starts with us, join us and the millions of moms and families around the country to urge Senate holdouts to pass the Build Back Better Act with paid family and medical leave. Twenty-nine years ago, Congress blazed a pathway forward with access to unpaid leave and they can do so again by passing paid family leave for all working families.
*Please take a moment to post this action link on your social media networks like Facebook and Twitter; and to share with friends and family too. The more of us who take action, the more powerful we are together. Here’s that link again to take action! https://action.momsrising.org/sign/FMLAtwentynine
P.S.– Have you ever had paid family medical leave and it helped – or not had it and it was terrible? Personal experiences are powerful and can make a HUGE difference in helping elected leaders understand how public policies impact families so they can move change. We want to hear more from YOU! Can you take a second and follow the link below to share your personal story about how having, or NOT having, access to job-protected paid leave has impacted your family in the pandemic? https://action.momsrising.org/survey/Caretaking_Stories
References:
[1] A story of passion, patience and persistence: The nine-year fight to make the FMLA the law of the land[2] Employee and Worksite Perspectives of the FMLA
[3] On FMLA’s 27th Anniversary, It’s Time to Pass Paid Leave for All
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