Paid Sick Days and Other CT Worker Action Items

by: mikect

Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 09:38:32 AM EDT

In Connecticut, a network of organizations coordinated by Working Families has launched the Everybody Benefits campaign, which backs Senate Bill 217, designed to guarantee that workers in medium to large companies can earn a few days of sick time each year.  Last year, the bill passed the Senate, but never got a vote in the House.  This week it passed the Judiciary Committee and moves to the Senate.

What you can do:

• Send your state legislators an Apple Gram
  
• Ask Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams to make paid sick days a priority
  
• Contribute to the campaign

See below for more action items and news about Connecticut workers.

• The right to organize: The CT AFL-CIO is asking for calls this weekend to Rep. Denise Merrill and Senator Toni Harp, Co-Chairs of the Approprations Committee in support of Senate Bill 489, "An Act Concerning The Right to Organize for All Workers."  They are asking that Merrill and Harp put the bill on the agenda for the Monday Appropriations Committee meeting and call for an early discussion of the legislation.  Here's a fact sheet on the bill.

• Pay equity for women: Participate in Pay Equity Day on April 22, coordinated by the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.  Attend a news conference with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (a sponsor of the federal Paycheck Fairness Act) or come to the Pay Equity Coffeehouse at Cosi's cafe in West Hartford.

• Lobby Day:  A multi-union Labor Lobby Day is scheduled for Wednesday, April 16 at the Legislative Office Building.  Here's the SEIU agenda.

• Organizing Foxwoods: The United Food and Commercial Workers Union wants to organize workers at Foxwoods.  The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has filed a petition to organize earlier in the week.  On May 1, about 310 Foxwoods physicial plant workers will vote on whether to join the International Union of Operating Engineers.  Casino dealers have voted to join the UAW, and the vote was upheld by a federal judge.

• Better food service: Parents, students, and AFSCME are calling for the New Haven Board of Alderman to cut ties with Aramark, the private food service contractor, because of mismanagement and poor food quality.  There is a rally on Monday, April 14 at 4:30.

• Having no sick days is good for you.  Anyone else notice the crude "What's good for General Motors is good for the country" rap in CBIA's latest TV ad and these kinds of statements?
  

  "[O]ur company is good for our employees and for Connecticut's economy."