Senate passes backdoor repeal of Family Leave – tell House members to protect our families!

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Mark testified in favor of Family and Medical Leave this year, speaking about how it would have helped his family when his daughter was born with serious health complications PHOTO: John Stang

Mark testified in favor of Family and Medical Leave this year, speaking about how it would have helped his family when his daughter was born with serious health complications
PHOTO: John Stang

It’s been a bad week for working families in the Washington State Legislature, as Monday the WA State Senate voted to potentially repeal our Paid Family and Medical Leave system.

Please contact your legislators in the WA State House (1-800-562-6000) and tell them one more time:

Don’t accept the Senate plan to repeal Family and Medical Leave Insurance! Washington’s working families and small businesses need expansion of paid leave protections, not rollbacks.

On Monday, the Senate passed SB 5903 by a vote of 27 to 21 (see how your Senator voted here). It would repeal the Family and Medical Leave Insurance if the legislature does not approve funding by 2015. The bill would create a taskforce of eight legislators with the assignment of recommending a funding mechanism.

What’s wrong with a taskforce? Some taskforces do good work, but this one is merely a smoke screen that will allow legislators to repeal family leave insurance without looking like they are taking an anti-family vote. Besides, we don’t need another task force! We already had one in 2007. Another will be a costly waste of time, and result in repeal of paid family leave.

The Senate repeal bill now goes to the House. Please take 5 minutes today to urge your Representatives to to do the right thing.

Action for today: Call the legislative hotline 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators in the House of Representatives:

  • Please support Washington working families and vote NO on SB 5903.
  • Do not support any measure that will repeal Washington’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program.
  • Washington’s working families and small businesses need expansion of paid leave protections, not rollbacks.

Will family leave repeal get crammed into budget deal?

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marilyn watkins

Marilyn Watkins, Policy Director at the Economic Opportunity Institute

Washington’s legislature is moving into its final phase focused on reconciling 3 different versions of the 2013-2015 budget before the April 28 adjournment date. And there’s still a threat that the Senate majority will try to cram repeal of family and medical leave insurance into the take home deal.

The House and Governor should stand firm in rejecting repeal or any other action rolling back our family leave insurance law.

Earlier in the session, the Senate majority tried to pass three bills that would have rolled back protections for Washington’s working families – repealing family and medical leave insurance, prohibiting local paid sick leave laws, and limiting the scope of local sick leave laws. Thanks to a strong showing of public support for expanding access to paid leave, rather than restricting it, all three anti-family bills died.

Then last week, Senators Braun and Holmquist-Newbry reintroduced the family leave repeal bill with a new number, Senate Bill 5903. That bill quickly passed through the Ways and Means Committee, and on April 16 was passed by the Rules Committee. The fiscal note for SB 5903 claims savings in the 2013-2015 biennium of $13.6 million. That’s the amount the Employment Security Department has projected it would need to prepare for paying family leave benefits now slated to begin during the 2015-2017 biennium.

But no legislation is necessary this year in order to “save” that money. The legislature can simply not make the appropriation.

Back in 2007, the legislature passed family and medical leave insurance policy, but because of the recession and budget crisis, postponed implementation until 2015. Next year, the legislature should adopt the improved policy and funding plan put forward by Senator Keiser and Representative Green (and 22 of their colleagues) and supported by a broad coalition of community members, workers, health professionals, and business owners.

Meanwhile, the Senate majority should keep its hands off family leave.

Conservatives in Washington Senate take another swipe at working families

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john braun

WA state Senator John Braun is (again) trying to repeal paid maternity leave

Cross-posted from the Economic Opportunity Institute:

Washington’s working families are again under attack from Republicans in the Washington state Senate, who have introduced a second bill to repeal family and medical leave insurance, and scheduled it for a hearing this afternoon. Earlier in the legislative session, Senators Braun, Holmquist-Newbry, Tom, and others introduced an identical bill, which failed to pass out of the Senate on time. This “new” bill is simply an attempt to use the health and economic security of working families as a chip in the budget negotiation process.

At this point in the legislative session, only bills necessary to the 2013-15 budget can be considered. Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FMLI), which became law in 2007, is scheduled to begin during the 2015-17 biennium. The state is under no obligation to spend money in the coming biennium, so this new bill (SB 5903) – which is not necessary to implement the 2013-15 budget – should be not be considered during this budget negotiation.

Investing in our youngest children and supporting families caring for aging parents will save the state money, improve education and health outcomes, and bolster our economy. Both employers and employees agree family and medical leave insurance is an important investment for healthy workers and thriving businesses.

Earlier this year, legislators heard testimony from small business owners like Don Orange from Vancouver and Consuelo Gomez from Bellevue whose businesses and employees would benefit from FMLI. They also heard testimony from a father whose little daughter spent the first 6 months of her life at Children’s Hospital, and from a woman whose father is postponing the surgery he needs to save his kidneys because he doesn’t have enough sick time saved up.

At the same time our legislature considers dismantling important protections for working families, President Obama has issued a budget that includes funding for state family and medical leave insurance programs. The President’s newly released 2014 budget sets aside $5 million to fund start-up of state programs. The budget also includes money to strengthen enforcement of federal family leave laws.

Washington’s legislature is moving in the wrong direction for our families and our economy. Repealing family and medical leave insurance would be a step back for all Washingtonian’s – and will not relieve any of the budget we are facing this biennium.

No sick leave = More germs at Sea-Tac?

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How policies for low-wage airport workers can make you sick.

Yoseph Diallo’s dad is the one who encouraged him to look for work at Sea-Tac airport, based on stories his family had heard over the years about stable, good-paying jobs with decent benefits.

So the 19-year-old was happy to get a job last year as a “ramper,” handling and driving baggage from planes to other parts of the airport. But the reality turned out to be quite different than the reputation from years gone by.

A new report by Puget Sound Sage shows that ground service workers at Sea-Tac airport—the majority of whom are people of color, immigrants, and refugees—make substantially less than their counterparts at other West Coast airports, do not have paid sick leave and have filed numerous complaints with the state about poor training and unsafe working conditions.

This article, by Jennifer Langston, was originally published by Sightline

From No Sick Leave = More Germs at Sea-Tac? by Jennifer Langston, Copyright Sightline Institute; used with permission.

The group includes cabin cleaners who disinfect tray tables and look for suspicious cargo left behind, wheelchair assistants who shuttle elderly travelers, skycaps and baggage handlers, and other ramp workers who perform functions such as guarding equipment, refueling planes and removing ice. On average, their minimum compensation at Sea-Tac is nearly $4 to $6 less than airport workers doing comparable jobs in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco.

These low-wage workers at Sea-Tac are overwhelmingly people of color, according to surveys that have shown the airport’s contractor workforce is only 36 percent white (compared with 64 percent for all of King County and 43 percent for all airport jobs). And the airport has become an employment magnet for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. As many as half of job applications come from transplants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

On principle, everyone—especially people who have had to flee their home countries and may have little frame of reference for how things are supposed to work here—deserves fair working conditions. But this isn’t just about airport workers. It’s about anyone who boards a plane and the policies that shape whether the employees charged with protecting their health and safety are given the tools to do so.

It’s not just the germy kid sitting behind you

For people who are making barely above minimum wage, missing a day of work can mean the difference between making rent that month or not. The lack of paid sick time is a powerful incentive to go to work even when you’re ill, as Diallo has done. Those infected workers then touch the same baggage handles that people will grab straight off the conveyor belt. They can spread germs on tables that the next planeload of people will eat from. They may assist elderly people and others whose immune systems may be compromised.

Diallo, who works the overnight shift at Sea-Tac and attends Highline Community College, says it’s not just about losing the income when he’s sick. When he misses a shift, he says, a point is deducted from his attendance record. If he hits 16 points, Diallo says he’s been told he’ll be fired.

It’s just so hard. It’s really hard. I want to stay home and rest up and try to make sure I don’t get anyone else sick, and I end up having to go to work because I’m afraid to stand up to my managers and tell them my situation. They seem to just not want to listen.

Diallo doesn’t work for the Port of Seattle (which operates Sea-Tac) or Alaska Airlines, whose bags he handles. He works for one of the many contractors that have become increasingly important to Sea-Tac’s operation as the airport and airlines have sought to cut labor costs. For instance, when Alaska Airlines outsourced its ramp operations to Menzies Aviation in 2005, the average wage for those workers fell by more than $5 an hour, according to Puget Sound Sage.

In November of last year, more than 50 workers who perform ground-based services for a variety of contractors filed complaints with the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. They include allegations of exposure to toxic chemicals, denial of bathroom breaks or access to water, exposure to faulty fueling equipment, and lack of training. Here’s a quote from one complaint filed by a wheelchair attendant:

If a passenger was to [relieve him or herself] in my chair, I would just take it to the restroom and clean it with napkins and soap and then continue to use my chair, management has never told me what to do with that chair. I have no gloves or spray to use so I would clean it with my hands in the restroom.

How Sea-Tac stacks up

So are these shortcuts inevitable as airlines are dreaming up new fees and cutting costs wherever possible? The report makes a persuasive case that the answer is no, especially when you compare Sea-Tac to other West Coast airports that provide living wages, health insurance incentives, worker retention programs, paid time off, and training standards for comparable workers.

Sea-Tac-graphic

(Click on graphic to embiggen)

For example, the city of Los Angeles several years ago became concerned about sick leave policies that could contribute to germ “superspreading” at its airport and the public cost of airport workers with no health insurance. So in 2009, it extended its living wage ordinance to airport workers that requires:

  • 12 paid days off and 10 unpaid days off annually
  • A minimum wage of $15.37, with a credit of $4.67 towards the total if the employer provides health benefits
  • Worker retention in the event the airport or airlines replace one contracting firm with another for the same function

Similarly, the city of San Francisco more than a decade ago passed standards that established a minimum living wage for airport ground service workers, access to health insurance and training designed to attract and retain a quality workforce. An analysis three years later showed that employee turnover fell by 60%, employees reported working harder and faster, and employers saw a decrease in grievances and absenteeism.

In Oakland, it was the voters themselves who overwhelmingly (by 78%) approved a ballot measure to create a living wage and other labor standards for airport and seaport businesses.

So, there appear to be multiple ways to take the lead on setting workforce standards for airport employees. And workers like Diallo are optimistic that conditions there can improve, if people want them to. As he puts it:

I love working at the airport. There are so many interesting people. It’s international, and you never know who you might meet there. But I feel like we’re not being respected at the job that we do. If we take the time and actually try to stand up to these guys and tell them how we feel and what is needed to be done in order to make every airport job a good job, I think we can make that happen.

Update: Sightline contacted the Port of Seattle, which owns Sea-Tac, and Alaska Airlines, the airport’s dominent carrier, for responses to Puget Sound Sage’s report. The port declined to comment at this time. Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan provided this statement late in the day and emphasized that the company employs nearly 13,000 people who earn almost $1 billion a year in wages and benefits, with nearly half of those people working in the Seattle area:

Alaska Airlines partners with vendors that focus on safety and provide quality services at competitive pricing for entry-level jobs. Our focus is to offer our customers safe, reliable and affordable air travel while continuing to grow our business and create more jobs within Alaska Airlines and at our partner vendors. Although we do not dictate the wages our contractors pay their employees, we do understand the importance of having a strong local economy that provides plentiful, good-paying jobs. The most effective way Alaska Airlines can contribute to this goal is to make decisions that ensure our company thrives and continues to provide careers and financial security for thousands of employees and their families.

Status of Work and Family bills in Olympia

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olympiaWednesday, March 13 was “cut-off” in Olympia. For the rest of the legislative session, only bills that have already passed the House or the Senate will be considered, except for budget bills and bills “necessary to implement the budget.”

Neither Paid Sick Days or Family & Medical Leave Insurance made it past cut-off – but thanks to all of your great work and a tremendous amount of public interest and support, we still made a lot of progress.

Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far this session:

Our coalition-sponsored bills were heard and moved through committees, positioning them well for future action:

  • HB 1313, establishing paid sick and safe leave, successfully passed out of the House Labor and Workforce Development, Appropriations, and Rules committees, but was not brought to the House floor for a vote. The Senate companion SB 5594 was heard in the Senate Commerce and Labor committee.
  • HB 1457, implementing family and medical leave insurance, successfully passed out of the House Labor and Workforce Development committee and was heard in the Finance committee. The Senate companion SB 5292 was heard in the Senate Commerce and Labor committee.

We blocked 2 out of 3 bills that would roll back paid leave protections:

  • SB 5159, repealing family and medical leave insurance, and SB 5728 preempting local paid sick and safe leave regulation both passed out of the Senate Commerce and Labor committee and Rules committee, but were not brought up for a vote on the floor.
  • However, SB 5726, placing geographic limitations on local paid sick leave and paid safe leave programs did pass the Senate and will be sent over to the House.

We have placed paid leave solidly on the policy agenda as key to healthy families and healthy communities:

  • Policymakers, the media, and the general public are growing increasingly aware of the high social and economic costs when workers do not have paid leave available, and the far-reaching benefits of paid leave policies.

Our coalition still has work to do this session, and we’ll let you know when it’s time to act:

  1. We need to stop bad policy. We must make sure that SB 5726 dies quickly in the House, and that restrictions on local sick leave ordinances and repeal of family and medical leave insurance are not part of any budget deal.
  2. We need to let legislators and the Governor know that Family and Medical Leave Insurance and Paid Sick Days remain important policy priorities.

Also, some great news from around the country:

  • Portland, OR passed paid sick and safe leave! Portland’s City Council unanimously adopted paid sick leave standards on March 13 (up to 5 days in companies with at least 6 employees).]
  • Philadelphia passed paid sick and safe leave! Their City Council approved paid sick leave by a vote of 11 to 6 today, March 14.

WA Senate conservatives attack working families, vote to weaken Seattle’s sick days law

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If conservatives in the Washington Senate get their way, this will be the fate of Seattle sick days law.

If conservatives in the Washington State Senate get their way, this will be the fate of Seattle’s landmark paid sick days law.

The attack on Washington’s families and middle class by Senate Republicans and “Road-Kill” Democrats continued in full force yesterday. Conservative senators passed SB 5726, which waters down Seattle’s sick and safe leave ordinance and restricts similar laws that might be passed by other Washington cities in the future.

Who would lose the right to earn a little time to stay home when sick or to deal with their families’ health needs if the House and the Governor accept the Senate bill? Anyone working for a company without a physical location inside Seattle, as well as employees of any company who spend more than 15% of the hours they work in a year outside of city limits.

That would mean, for example, that someone working for a bakery or produce supplier based in Bellevue and spending their entire day delivering food to Seattle restaurants and grocery stores could be forced to work sick. So could a furnace installer or plumber who enters Seattle homes on a daily basis, but who is dispatched from a Shoreline office.

People who basically work fulltime in Seattle, but go to meetings or work outside of their main office an average of 3 days a month could also have the right to earn sick time taken from them. In fact, large chains with multiple locations could easily game the system by rotating staff to a non-Seattle store every couple of weeks.

Senators Braun (Centralia), Hobbes (Lake Stevens), Tom (Bellevue), and Holmquist-Newbry (Moses Lake) led the fight to limit working people’s ability to care for their own health or a sick child. They championed “building a wall around Seattle” and bemoaned the dilemma of businesses in suburban and rural districts who choose to sell their products and services in the big bad city and now find themselves having to provide a few hours of sick leave a year to some employees.

Let’s be clear. Complying with Seattle’s ordinance is only complicated for firms who want to deny their workers even the most minimal paid sick leave and require them to work when they are sick. Most companies covered by the law that didn’t offer sick leave before, do now and are not having any difficulty.

Of course, no company is forced to enjoy the benefits of the city’s customer base and facilities. And after listening to business representatives, Seattle’s city council limited coverage of the ordinance to workers based elsewhere to those who are working in the city at least 240 hours in a year, or 6 full-time weeks. This was a reasonable compromise, protecting the health and safety of Seattle residents and businesses, but not requiring that workers who were only incidentally inside the city be covered.

A number of Senators stood to defend the right of local governments to protect public health and the importance of paid sick leave standards to family economic security and business vitality. Senators Keiser, Frockt, Hasagawa, Murray, Conway, Kline and Kohl-Welles all spoke eloquently in opposition to SB 5726.

Meanwhile, House Bill 1313 which would extend paid sick and safe leave standards statewide has yet to be acted on by the House, although cut-off for passage of policy bills is tomorrow.

How did your Senator vote on ESB 5726, Placing geographic limitations on local paid sick leave and paid safe leave programs?

Voting Yea:  Senators Bailey (R-Oak Harbor), Baumgartner (R-Spokane), Becker (R-Eatonville), Benton (R-Vancouver), Braun (R-Centralia), Brown (R-Kennewick), Carrell (R-Lakewood), Dammeier (R-Puyallup), Eide (D-Federal Way), Ericksen (D-Ferndale), Fain (R-S King County), Hargrove (D-Hoquiam), Hatfield (D-Raymond), Hewitt (R-Walla Walla), Hill (R-E King County), Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens), Holmquist Newbry (R-Ellensburg), Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), King (R-Yakima), Litzow (R-Mercer Island), Padden (R-Spokane Valley), Parlette (R-Wenatchee), Pearson (R-Monroe), Rivers (R-La Center), Roach (R-Auburn), Schoesler (R-Ritzville), Sheldon (D-Kitsap), Smith (R-Colville), and Tom (D-Bellevue)

Voting Nay:  Senators Billig (D-Spokane), Chase (D-Shoreline), Cleveland (D-Vancouver), Conway (D-South Tacoma), Darneille (D-Tacoma), Fraser (D-Olympia), Frockt (D-Seattle), Harper (D-Everett), Hasegawa (D-Beacon Hill), Keiser (D-Kent), Kline (D-Seattle), Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), McAuliffe (D-Bothell), Mullet (D-Issaquah), Murray (D-Seattle), Nelson (D-Seattle), Ranker (D-Orcas Island), Rolfes (D-Kitsap County), Schlicher (D-Gig Harbor), and Shin (D-Edmonds)