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nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 01:02 PM Apr 2013

PLEASE HELP: Efforts to Deliver 'Kill Shot' to Paid Sick Leave Tied to ALEC -- HuffPo

With earned sick time becoming a definitive issue for progressives, it's important to note how the opposition is reacting. As New York FINALLY passes a modest program, ALEC focuses on Florida and will likely roll back wage theft, living wage and other worker protections at the behest of their ALEC overlords.

If you're so inclined...please use this number to call and oppose these ALEC-led efforts in Florida (we need YOUR help!)





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/alec-paid-sick-leave_b_3007445.html


ALEC Politician Works to "Deliver the Kill Shot" in Florida
The battle might be most heated in Florida.

Orange County is following in Milwaukee's footsteps, with advocates gathering more than 50,000 signatures last year to place a sick-time measure on the ballot. The referendum was kept off the November 2012 ballot because of a delaying campaign coordinated by Orange County commissioners working with big business, including ALEC member Darden Restaurants, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Disney and others. In February, a court found the County had violated "the plain meaning of its charter" by refusing to put paid sick leave in front of voters.

Text messages released through open records requests indicate the delaying tactics were part of a strategy to kill the initiative entirely. In early September, Orange County GOP Chair Lew Oliver texted Commissioner Ted Edwards saying he wants "at least one good faith straight face test reason to at least delay it long enough to keep it off the ballot in November. After that, the Legislature can deliver the kill shot." The "kill shot" would come from Florida legislators duplicating the anti-democratic tactics of Wisconsin's governor.

House Majority Leader Steve Precourt (R), an ALEC member, recently introduced a sweeping paid sick days preemption bill that tracks Wisconsin's Senate Bill 23 and would thwart the Orange County effort. The bill would effectively keep Orange County residents from voting on the county's first citizen-led ballot initiative. Precourt's proposal actually goes further than Wisconsin's bill by incorporating ALEC model legislation that would preempt local living wage requirements as well. (ALEC's slate of bills promoting a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions for America's workforce was recently detailed in a report by the National Employment Law Project.)

Precourt attended the 2011 ALEC meeting where legislators were handed complete copies of Wisconsin's 2011 Senate Bill 23. He reported receiving $487.38 from the corporate-funded "scholarship fund" to attend the 2011 ALEC meeting. According to documents released from the ALEC State Chair for Florida, Rep. Jimmy Patronis, Florida lawmakers' attendance at ALEC's 2011 annual conference in New Orleans was "one of the strongest delegations in years."

(snip)





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PLEASE HELP: Efforts to Deliver 'Kill Shot' to Paid Sick Leave Tied to ALEC -- HuffPo (Original Post) nashville_brook Apr 2013 OP
btw -- I understand that Alan Grayson is introducing sick time in the House nashville_brook Apr 2013 #1
Glad he's trying, but this effort to evicerate local government DirkGently Apr 2013 #13
Your friendly neighborhood GOP DirkGently Apr 2013 #2
ALEC sock puppets are out in force nashville_brook Apr 2013 #3
More slash and burn Newest Reality Apr 2013 #4
kochsterbation xtraxritical Apr 2013 #7
FL republicans are Kochsuckers. nashville_brook Apr 2013 #16
Thanks for posting this. lark Apr 2013 #5
thank you -- ! nashville_brook Apr 2013 #8
They do extrapolate, though ... DirkGently Apr 2013 #11
Press Release from Citizens for a Greater Orange County on HB 655 passing nashville_brook Apr 2013 #24
ALEC's 2011 annual conference in New Orleans KamaAina Apr 2013 #6
I work in a hospital. Not in Florida. SheilaT Apr 2013 #9
It should be a no-brainer right? -- Sick people stay home. DirkGently Apr 2013 #10
Do we even need to mention that SheilaT Apr 2013 #17
Jesus. I knew a fairly big-time lawyer whose DirkGently Apr 2013 #19
in Florida, workers in nursing homes have the fewest protectections nashville_brook Apr 2013 #15
K & R & AzDar Apr 2013 #12
being debated on House floor now -- watch here nashville_brook Apr 2013 #14
Is this a good issue for progressive candidates to run on? Generic Other Apr 2013 #18
here's a great piece from Salon | Paid sick leave: The next liberal litmus test? nashville_brook Apr 2013 #20
It s a no-brainer. There's no justifying making people work sick. DirkGently Apr 2013 #21
meme-bomb nashville_brook Apr 2013 #23
We simply can't afford for workers NOT to have sick leave. DirkGently Apr 2013 #25
+1 nashville_brook Apr 2013 #31
k&r nt steve2470 Apr 2013 #22
Florida is already a hell hole for workers.... Sekhmets Daughter Apr 2013 #26
the rethugs have flown under the radar here...at least in comparison to the WI fiasco nashville_brook Apr 2013 #27
They're terrified someone might make a mild improvement. DirkGently Apr 2013 #28
I am beyond even attempting Sekhmets Daughter Apr 2013 #29
they're making bank -- it's really that simple. nashville_brook Apr 2013 #30

nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
1. btw -- I understand that Alan Grayson is introducing sick time in the House
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 01:22 PM
Apr 2013

don't know how much traction it will get, but it's great to have Grayson as a champion on this.

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
13. Glad he's trying, but this effort to evicerate local government
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 03:56 PM
Apr 2013

is a separate problem, too. It's another ringing example of how Republicans aren't for "small government" -- they're for powerful, aggressive legislation to protect their business cronies and socially backward constitutents.

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
4. More slash and burn
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 01:47 PM
Apr 2013

kochery!

The Bro's huge amounts of money is doing a great job of dismantling what we had left and its outside the spotlight most of the time.

lark

(22,993 posts)
5. Thanks for posting this.
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 02:36 PM
Apr 2013


I called the # and left a very direct message requesting my congressman, Lake Ray, vote NO on this bill, that it was an ALEC trojan horse and would actually hurt workers, not help them.
Like most of FL legislators, he's a Repug, so don't expect much traction unless he's getting calls from LOTS of folks.

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
11. They do extrapolate, though ...
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 03:22 PM
Apr 2013

Read that so few people call (relatively speaking) that legislators assume if they get a handful of calls on any subject, that it's the tip of an iceberg, so to speak.

So it's defintely worth the call. Just called my Republican state senator, even the bill may not make it out of the house (let's hope).



nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
24. Press Release from Citizens for a Greater Orange County on HB 655 passing
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 08:18 PM
Apr 2013

(press release isn't copyrighted -- please distribute freely)

House delivers for Disney and Chamber on “Kill Shot” to Local Control of Earned Sick Time, Living Wage
HB 655 part of a comprehensive industry strategy to strip local control from communities across Florida


TALLAHASSEE – With their vote today to deliver a “kill shot” to local control and home rule, Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives ignored their own principles and the fact that Majority Leader Steve Precourt’s HB 655 is part of a criminal investigation to silence voters in Orange County. During today's debate, Rep. José Javier Rodríguez (D-Miami) said, "The bill we have before us is a preemption pile up."

“Our elected representatives are supposed to be safeguarding our right to vote. Instead, at the behest of Big Business, today they voted to take that right away from voters in 67 counties and more than 400 municipalities across Florida,” said Stephanie Porta with the Florida Coalition for Local Control.

In January, it was revealed that during a September 11, 2012 meeting when Orange County Commissioners illegally refused to refer the sick time ordinance to the ballot, Orange County GOP Chairman Lew Oliver texted a commissioner saying that he wanted to “delay it long enough to keep it off the ballot in November. After that, the Legislature can deliver the kill shot."

“HB 655 is that ‘kill shot’,” said Porta, a leader in the Orange County petition drive. "First democracy was denied in Orange County in 2012 when county commissioners refused to allow citizens a vote on Earned Sick Time, and now state legislators are trying to deprive every local government in Florida of the right to vote on things like Earned Sick Time laws."

Precourt has repeatedly said his bill (HB 655) "is not about paid sick leave" but his allies in the business community tell a very different story.

A March 11th newsletter from the Central Florida Partnership says: "Once the traditional opening day ceremonies concluded, both houses of the legislature got down to work right away on a Central Florida Partnership legislative priority with further action seen on two measures that would effectively preempt paid sick leave mandates by local governments. HB 655, authored by Rep. Steve Precourt (R-Orlando), came out of the House State Affairs Committee headed by Central Florida Legislative Delegation Chair Rep. Steve Crisafulli (R-Merritt Island) on a 12-5 party line vote and will be calendared now for floor action."

"Rep. Precourt can't have it both ways," said Brook Hines, Director of the Community Business Association of Central Florida. "He needs to come clean and admit he is the architect of the GOP's “kill shot” to ensure Orange County voters never get their day at the ballot box on Earned Sick Time and that his bill would take away local control in every city and county in Florida in the process."
If signed into law, this legislation would make a recent court victory mandating that Orange County commissioners refer the Earned Sick Time ordinance to the ballot a hollow victory. But HB 655 threatens not only to preempt an upcoming vote on Earned Sick Time in Orange County but would eliminate “living wage” ordinances that are already in place in many Florida communities.

“This is Big Government intrusion into local affairs and the Fraternal Order of Police opposes these attempts to undermine home rule,” said Steven Camacho, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 86.

“Bills like HB 655 represent an ominous attempt to remove power from locally elected officials and make the voters mere bystanders in the democratic processes that define the character of their communities,” said Jeanette Smith, executive director of South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice.

The story of Precourt’s “kill shot” is now attracting national attention as part of a coordinated effort by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to preempt local control, even as ALEC sends Orwellian tweets like this one yesterday: "One size does not fit all. We should keep things local."

###

Timeline

On September 11, 2012, Orange County commissioners and lobbyists for big business conspired (by text message during a commission meeting) to keep the Earned Sick Time initiative off the November ballot – an initiative prompted by more than 52,000 citizen petition signers.

In January of 2013, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Jeff Ashton asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate whether county leaders violated Government in the Sunshine laws in what has become known as "textgate."

On February 15th, a three-judge panel ruled that the County Commission violated the “plain meaning of its charter” by keeping Earned Sick Time off the ballot and ordered them to place the initiative on the August 2014 primary ballot. "The charter plainly requires Orange County either to adopt the voter initiative or to call a referendum on the petition's adoption and place the petition on the ballot," the panel ruled. The Orlando Sentinel reported on the ruling here: Judge orders Orange to put sick time on next ballot.

On February 20th, HB 655 marked the beginning of a coordinated effort to undermine our local economies and ensure voters in Orange County, and every other Florida county, will be deprived of ever having a chance to vote for Earned Sick Time.

 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
6. ALEC's 2011 annual conference in New Orleans
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 02:48 PM
Apr 2013

Bad week to be in the service industry in NOLA. I went there in 1988, right after the RNC. My cabbie told me that repukes were the worst tippers in the world. Who'd'a thunk?

 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
9. I work in a hospital. Not in Florida.
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 03:05 PM
Apr 2013

We have a combined leave scheme, where altogether you get about 26 days per year (more after five years) which you supposedly can use any way you want. Several months ago, employees in the registration area told me they'd been told by management that they couldn't use more than some specific number of days as sick days. I'm thinking it was five, but no matter the number I wish I'd been at that meeting, because I would have said, "So you're telling us that you WANT us to come to work sick, rather than take our leave days as sick time."

It's bad enough that in too many cases employees choose to come to work even though they do get paid sick leave because they've either become convinced they're too valuable to take time off, or that it's a mark of a good employee to come to work no matter what.

Now I'm very healthy, always have been. Several decades ago whey the sick time and the vacation time were two different pools, I left a job after ten years and left behind more than 100 sick days. Naturally I didn't get any of those days paid out. Never again would I do that. At least at this job, whatever I haven't used once I leave, I'll get paid for.

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
10. It should be a no-brainer right? -- Sick people stay home.
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 03:17 PM
Apr 2013

Last edited Thu Apr 4, 2013, 06:50 PM - Edit history (1)

The supposed objection is of course that people will game the system and take (gasp!) illicit days off. The flipside, though, is that healthcare, service, restaurant, and transportation workers are FORCED to come in sick. Here in FL, that means Disney workers (Disney's a big opponent of sick leave) Darden restaurant workers, and transportation like taxis and buses, as well as nursing home employees (imagine the destruction one flu-ridden elder care worker could unintentially inflict).

Not to mention the proven increase in workplace injuries when people are sick or doped up with an illness.

It's an easy call to make, but the level of screaming, skull-popping resistance here in Orange County has been amazing. These businesses and their gov't cronies don't just think they own the state -- they're certain of it.

 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
17. Do we even need to mention that
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 04:29 PM
Apr 2013

the people who are so opposed to paid sick leave themselves get plenty of it. And health insurance. They're not standing on their feet for an eight hour shift. Or longer. They're not dealing directly with the general public, where their own health and the health of those they come in contact with is a factor.

A company that concerned about employees gaming the system can require a doctor's note, but most people don't go to a doctor for the kind of relatively trivial illness that they need to stay home for such as a cold.

Many years ago when the phone company was still Ma Bell, I worked there. Our sick leave policy was actually quite generous, something like six months if need be, but the hitch was you didn't get paid for the first three days you were off. It's slightly possible there were exceptions if you actually went to a doctor, but I can't recall after all these years. The idea was to cut down on fake sick calls, but we operators simply called in sick anyway, whether we were actually sick or just needed a mental health day, and simply resented it mightily that we weren't going to get paid.

They were also notorious about pressuring an ill person to come in anyway. The one that became legend at the time was when a pregnant co-worker was having a miscarriage, and they asked her, "Can you come in and work the second half of your shift?" Really happened.

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
19. Jesus. I knew a fairly big-time lawyer whose
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 06:56 PM
Apr 2013

managing partner showed up in her hospital room (also pregnancy complications) to ask her how she planned to make up her billable hours.

She quit shortly after.

nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
15. in Florida, workers in nursing homes have the fewest protectections
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 04:27 PM
Apr 2013

so, we basically mandate that sick workers care for our most fragile citizens.

it's...well, sick.

Generic Other

(28,979 posts)
18. Is this a good issue for progressive candidates to run on?
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 05:41 PM
Apr 2013

It seems a no-brainer. Every worker deserves some paid sick leave. God, how low the right will stoop to intensify people's misery in this country. How that can be a winning strategy in any election is beyond me.

nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
20. here's a great piece from Salon | Paid sick leave: The next liberal litmus test?
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 07:04 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/29/paid_sick_leave_the_next_liberal_litmus_test/

It's not just "a good" issue to run on -- it's being viewed as a litmus test.

Paid sick leave: The next liberal litmus test?

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/29/paid_sick_leave_the_next_liberal_litmus_test/


There’s a new must-support issue for ambitious Democrats across the nation: paid sick leave. And if you want to see how important it has become, just look to the current race for New York City mayor.

Before Thursday, City Council speaker Christine Quinn (generally an ally of Mayor Michael Bloomberg) hemmed and hawed for three years over whether to put forth a paid sick leave bill, despite the fact that eight in 10 New Yorkers support it. The issue placed her in an uncomfortable bind, trapped between Bloomberg and the business community (all of whom oppose it) — and workers and unions on the other side.

(snip)

Earlier this month, John Podesta, chairman of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, proposed the same argument at the Democratic Municipal Officers Breakfast. The liberal heavyweight spent most of his time talking paid sick leave, noting that ALEC’s harsh tactics against such legislation should be reason enough to give the legislation some thought.

“Sick employees cost businesses time and money,” he said. “Workers with access to paid sick leave are nearly one-third less likely to be injured on the job, which reduces costs to employers.” He noted to the audience that he makes the case for earned sick time “as a business-friendly, Bill Clinton New Democrat.”

DirkGently

(12,151 posts)
25. We simply can't afford for workers NOT to have sick leave.
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 10:19 PM
Apr 2013

Can't afford the impact of lost jobs, the spread of disease, the increase of workplace injuries. What have we come to when we can't imagine there's something wrong with telling a cook they need to come in with a stomach bug, a bus driver with an eye infection?

It's insanity, and yet these are the arguments we have to have.

nashville_brook

(20,958 posts)
27. the rethugs have flown under the radar here...at least in comparison to the WI fiasco
Thu Apr 4, 2013, 11:34 PM
Apr 2013

also, we have an absurdly short legislative session, which gives them cover. news of this won't hit -- if it hits nationally -- until it's waaaaay too late.

i watched the debate on the house floor today. truly disgusting.

Sekhmets Daughter

(7,515 posts)
29. I am beyond even attempting
Fri Apr 5, 2013, 10:03 AM
Apr 2013

to explain what they are doing or what they want. It's like they want 30% of the state to be rich and 70% to be poor... with nothing in between and no assistance for anyone. When did being a third world state become so desirable?

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