Fifteen Washington ACORN members marched wtih United Food and Commercial workers to a local Albertsons market to meet with the store's management and demand better wages and paid sick days.

Rep. DeLauro speaking at the press conference.

The Conn. Senate passed the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act on May 29, voting for it overwhelmingly, 23-13. The bill would require businesses employing 50 or more to allow them to accrue up to 6-1/2 paid sick days per year. 

If passed by the House, the bill will benefit many of the state’s 655,000 workers who are currently without a single paid sick day.

Momentum built, following a highly successful press conference last Saturday, featuring Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, State Reps. Michael Lawlor and Steve Fontana and allies from the Connecticut Working Families coalition. DeLau... [more]   Comments (0)

ACORN and allied organizations scored a victory Friday in the fight to win paid sick days legislation for Connecticut workers. The Healthy Workers, Healthy Families Act, SB 601, passed out of the Judiciary Committee with a vote of 19-13.

Forty percent of Connecticut workers lack paid sick days, and many of them are concentrated in the food service industry. The Healthy Workers, Healthy Families Campaign is a project of Connecticut ACORN and Connecticut Working Families and is part of a national movement to win paid sick days for all American workers.

ACORN is moving state legislation in several states and is supporting federal paid sick day legislation by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Ted Kennedy.

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During the Annual Legislative and Political Caucus in Washington, D.C., April 12-13, ACORN members from 40 states completed more than 175 visits with their senators and state representatives.

They urged members of Congress to co-sponsor and support the Healthy Families Act, which would require businesses with at least 15 employees to provide a fair number of sick days.

ACORN members got commitments from several members of Congress to sign on and are following up now to ensure the list of the bill’s co-sponsor continues to grow. The day after ACORN’s lobby day, Senators Lieberman (D-CT) and Mendendez (D-NJ) became co-sponsors of the bill.

ACORN member Bertha Brown speaks about working without paid sick days.

Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro spoke about the need for mandatory sick days at a rally held March 13 at the Russell State Office Building in Washington, D.C. They later reintroduced the Healthy Families Act.

"I have paid sick leave. The President has paid sick leave. Every member of Congress has paid sick leave, and you should have paid sick leave too," Kennedy said. "It’s good for the economy."

DeLauro added, "It’s a basic right in the workplace to have paid sick leave."

ACORN member Bertha Brown, a home care worker from Philadelphia who has no pai... [more]   Comments (0)

ACORN members in 39 cities demonstrated Thursday in front of restaurants and retail stores that don't provide paid sick days to employees.

Despite an intense snow storm, a dozen hard-core Minnesota ACORN members and staff protested in front of Wal-Mart, demanding paid sick days. Bernie Hesse - a special projects organizer from United Food and Commercial Workers union, as well as a candidate for city council -was among them.

A press conference and protest in front of Jack in the Box in Los Angeles were covered by three television stations, two radio shows and two newspapers.

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ACORN recently completed a survey of 50 of the largest food service and retail companies in America to find out whether they provided hourly workers with sick days.

ACORN learned that despite the close contact workers have with the public in those businesses, almost half offered no paid sick days.

“Working Sick, Getting Stiffed: How Some of America’s Biggest Companies Fail Their Workers and Jeopardize Public Health,” released Mar. 1, 2007, showed that the accommodation and food service businesses provided paid sick days to only 22 percent of the workers in those industries.

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Legislators in nine states are considering bills that would give every worker some paid sick leave, leveling the playing field for low-wage workers. Although the 1993 Federal & Medical Leave Act provided for unpaid leave for serious illness, there is currently no federal law guaranteeing even a single day of paid sick leave to workers. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not require paid sick days.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) are hoping to enact mandatory sick leave at the federal level this year. Kennedy’s Healthy Families Act would require businesses with 15 or more employees who work at least 20 hours a week to provide at least seven paid sick da... [more]   Comments (0)