Ask Adela Valdez how it feels to hear public health experts on TV explain ways to limit a flu outbreak. Get a flu shot, wash your hands, they advise – and if you get the flu, stay home until 24 hours after your fever’s gone. “One day, I had a fever but I went to [...]

I’m a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, but I have to hand it to Bears cornerback Charles Tillman, who was determined to be with his wife when she delivered their fourth child, even if it meant missing Sunday’s game against the Texans. Tillman told the press on Wednesday, “At the end of the day, (family is) [...]

Two thousand workers who clean the rooms and serve the food at hotels in Long Beach, California had special cause for celebration election night. They will finally earn a living wage and be able take a sick day without risking a paycheck or a job. “I have said all along that the second thing I [...]

When the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) rolled into Orlando with its “I Built My Business” bus tour, they ran into some unexpected company – a crowd of 70 local business owners, community leaders, and Orlando voters who rejected the group’s claims to be a legitimate representative of small business.  The protesters, some wearing [...]

This is what democracy does NOT look like: Hundreds of community activists, faith leaders, business owners and others in Orange County, Florida, identified the need for workers to earn paid sick days as a critical way to keep jobs and boost the economy. They scrupulously followed all the rules. That included spending weeks gathering signatures, [...]

The right wing relies on an old method of deception:  repeat something often enough and people will begin to accept it as fact. And when the media acts as a conduit for delivering this message without verification, false truths spread at a rapid pace. A new media study by two academics reviewed the use of the term [...]

The National Federation of Independent Businesses loves to wrap itself in the flag of neighborhood Mom and Pop shops when it lobbies on Capitol Hill, but many small business owners maintain the NFIB’s agenda doesn’t address their priorities, and say the lobbying group even fights against policies that small businesses need. As Reuters recently reported , “the [...]

My favorite Mother’s day gifts from my sons were their original stories, songs and poems. But what I needed when they were infants and toddlers was something children can’t deliver:  affordable time off when they were born and when they were sick. So for all those candidates and elected officials interested in the women’s vote and [...]

I love the image of conservatives hiding behind the flag of motherhood to protect themselves against charges of gender insensitivity. It’s like kids who move the couch to cover up a stain and hope no one will notice. By all means, let’s talk about the importance of motherhood. We can start with the right to [...]

Experts like to talk about cost-benefit analyses. Badly needed reforms to inefficient systems may cost money, but often the benefits from that change far outweigh the costs. What gets overlooked is the cost of NOT implementing reforms. Take the Affordable Health Care Act, which is celebrating its second anniversary. Offsetting the costs to reform our [...]

Paid sick days are good for our economy, according to numerous studies by seasoned economists.  That’s why Americans in cities and states across the country from all parts of the political spectrum support this policy . The same policy is under fierce attack by big corporate lobbyists, whose job it is to protect the top 1% of society [...]

Name a country where large numbers of women legally earn less than minimum wage and have to drag themselves to work sick or risk losing their job. To all the places that come to mind, add the United States of America. The workers in question are employed in one of the largest and fastest growing sectors [...]

The group that led the fight for paid sick days in Milwaukee has filed an ethics charge against a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, after learning that he had accepted free legal services worth tens of thousands of dollars from the same law firm that appeared before him to argue against paid sick days in Milwaukee. [...]

This time last year, Desiree Rosado, a school bus driver in Groton, Connecticut, was dreading flu season. “Working without paid sick days, you’re always worried about what will happen if you get sick,” she said. “When my kids caught the swine flu, I missed a week of pay to stay home and take care of [...]

What’s most frightening about the movie Contagion is that it’s NOT science fiction. Flu epidemics are real, and they can spread quickly – especially in the United States, where 44 million people without paid sick days are forced to choose between their financial security and their health when they get sick.  During the recent H1N1 outbreak, seven million [...]

Verizon appears not to have learned the lesson of Wisconsin – workers DO notice when “sacrifice” is a one-way street. Corporate giants like Verizon are trying to kill middle class jobs in America, even going after the paid sick days that help foster a healthy and productive work environment. But working families have sacrificed enough. [...]