Paid sick leave: The next liberal litmus test?

[DonViejo]

Providing paid sick leave for workers is rapidly becoming a national Democratic priority. Oppose it at your peril

BY RANDY LOBASSO

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.

But after previously using her power to block the bill (despite the majority of the city council supporting it), Quinn realized her situation had become politically untenable. And on Thursday, a compromise was reached which requires companies with 15 or more workers to offer employees at least five paid sick days. As the New York Times noted, the deal represents a “raw display of political muscle by a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists

A similar fight has taken shape in Philadelphia. Earlier this month, the city councilman responsible for earned sick time legislation came face-to-face with the mayoral administration that’d been fighting against his bill for over two years. A member of the health commission in the local City Council, Democrat Bill Greenlee became visibly distraught when the Democratic administration of mayor Michael Nutter sent its director of commerce to testify to the health committee, instead of the health commissioner.

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

[talkingmime]

1. Paid sick leave used to be normal. AND, they distinguished between sick, vacation, and personal.

Now they just lump it into a pool of "time off with pay" and that's dwindling. My wife's been with the same company for over ten years and she's got twice as much time off per year (grandfathered in) than new hires.

The other disturbing trend is "optional holidays", meaning you can take the holiday off but it counts against your paid time off.

Meanwhile, the CEOs make more in a day than most of their employees make in a week, month, year, or more. And their greatest claim to fame is finding ways to fuck over their own employees.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. We are fighting this shit again?...

This country is moving forward into the 19th century.