From Moms Rising (https://www.momsrising.org/):
Without paid sick days and family/medical leave, governors can’t safely reopen their economies –especially as pandemic death rates continue to rise and widespread testing for COVID-19 is still not available. [1,2] In fact, right now the majority of workers still don’t have access to paid leave to stay home to protect themselves and others if they get sick. [3]
This is not ok. Go to https://action.momsrising.org/sign/PAIDLeaveActCOVID19 to urge our governor to demand permanent national paid sick days and family/medical leave as part of the next COVID-19 recovery package.
If governors are going to SAFELY reopen states we need stronger–and permanent!!! — nationwide paid sick days and paid leave laws in place. Our governors have a direct line to Washington D.C., so let’s urge our governors to tell Congress and the President to include stronger–and permanent–nation-wide paid leave and paid sick days in the next COVID-19 recovery package. Congress is starting to work on the next package this week. There is no time to waste!
Wisconsin’s chaotic primary election perfectly illustrates what happens when people are prematurely forced into social un-distancing: We learned that at least seven voters caught the COVID-19 virus when they went out to cast their ballots. [4] And now, several states are considering reopening before their state or the nation has the pandemic under control. We need to build in protections in the next coronavirus relief package! Unfortunately, the first paid leave law that Congress passed doesn’t go nearly far enough — leaving out as many as 96 million working people – that’s almost a third of the entire nation’s population, including children. Even worse, these meager paid leave laws expire at the end of 2020, right when we may be facing a new spike in COVID-19.
What we need is the Providing Americans Insured Days of Leave (PAID Leave) Act — and we need it in the next relief package that Congress moves forward. [5] The PAID Leave Act closes the loopholes in the Families First Act (providing emergency paid leave to eligible workers) that, for example, excludes any one who works for an employer with more than 500 people! And ridiculously, the expanded family leave that passed can only be used to care for children who are home because their school or childcare is closed due to the pandemic. You can’t use the expanded leave to recover from COVID-19 or to care for a family member who is recovering from COVID-19 or another serious medical condition. This is not okay! And furthermore, the limited paid time available in the law that passed so far all expires at the end of 2020. We need more — and the proposed PAID Leave Act makes both paid sick days and paid family and medical leave permanent because we know the need for these policies doesn’t begin and end with the coronavirus crisis.
And the need for comprehensive paid family and medical leave and paid sick days is nationwide. While some states already have statewide paid leave and paid sick days laws, most states do not, and a patchwork approach won’t work right now. Access to these life and job saving benefits shouldn’t be a matter of winning the boss lottery or living in the right ZIP code.
We need to send an urgent message to Washington, D.C. that families need stronger–and permanent–paid sick days and paid family and medical leave now. And our nation’s governors are in a prime position to deliver that message because they have a direct line to Congress and the White House.
Urge your governor to push for the Providing Americans Insured Days of Leave (PAID Leave) Act!
The PAID Leave Act is a strong, history-making fix because it would ensure that working people have access to 14 days of paid sick time and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to use during the COVID-19 crisis AND any future public health emergency. It also provides seven paid sick days that working people can earn annually to use even when there isn’t a public health emergency. And, it also creates a permanent paid family and medical leave insurance system to welcome a new child, care for loved ones, and address serious personal medical issues.
Congress will start working on the next COVID-19 relief package as soon as this week! And with some states already opening, even before we have widespread testing, we have no time to waste.
https://action.momsrising.org/sign/PAIDLeaveActCOVID19
Access to comprehensive and permanent paid sick days and paid family and medical leave will be crucial for reopening states safely: This virus hasn’t gone away, and won’t anytime soon, and people will need time to recover without worrying about losing their jobs.
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[1] Miami Herald: Plans to reopen Florida begin as COVID-19 deaths top 600 [2] Vox: The Case for Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic with Mass Testing [3] KQED: Even With New Federal Coronavirus Bill, Most Workers Get No Additional Sick Leave [4] NBC News: 7 corona virus infections linked to in-person voting [5] The Providing Americans Insured Days of Leave (PAID Leave) Act
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