All Blog Posts

04/25/13

Moms shouldn’t have to choose between their jobs and the health of their families. But too often, companies that are fixated on their bottom lines force women to make this choice. I know. It happened to me. I became pregnant with my second child while I was working at a T-Mobile call center in...

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Kristi Rifkin

04/25/13

Yesterday, Chicago’s fast food and retail workers stood up and said ENOUGH! The corporations they work for are raking in huge profits, but they don't pay their employees – mostly adults with families to support – enough to cover the most basic needs like food, rent, health care, and transportation...

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Monifa Bandele

Paid Sick Days

04/25/13

I have paid sick days but, sadly, know firsthand that we’re all at risk if we don’t ensure that everyone has this basic benefit. My mother, a Holocaust survivor, developed Parkinson’s disease and had a major stroke. She was hospitalized and then sent to a nursing home. The doctors told my father...

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Cindy Weasen

Paid Sick Days

04/24/13

It’s the stories that I keep coming back to. The story of a cook who was hit by a bus and hit with an eviction notice when he couldn’t pay his rent. The story of a mother who missed two weeks of work with illness and, five months later, still wasn’t back on her feet financially. The story of a man...

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Marianne Bellesorte

Gun Safety

04/24/13

I vividly remember my high school prom. We were dressed like adults and many anticipated the chance to play the part. Do you remember the scene: doey-eyed teenagers and whispers of all the possible places to spend the rest of the night without adult supervision? For young people, the energy of the...

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Anayah Sangodele-Ayoka

Paid Sick Days

04/24/13

Susan, a single mother in Missouri, has a 10-year-old son who has pneumonia. She wants to stay home and care for him, but she cannot because her boss refuses to let her take the day off and she is terrified that, if she misses work, she will lose her job. She has no choice but to leave him home...

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Debra L. Ness

Paid Sick Days

04/24/13

Mickey Mouse now has a side gig as a corporate lobbyist?! Apparently. Because right now in Florida, in the final days of the state legislative session, the Orlando Sentinel reports that Disney is working to make it impossible for local Florida cities and counties to pass earned sick time laws. [ 1...

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Ruth Martin

Health Care

04/24/13

Those of us who work in the health IT world spend our days analyzing policies, creating advocacy strategies, and talking about meaningful use criteria, quality improvement, and care coordination till we’re blue in the face. But how does that play out when we leave the office? More often than not,...

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Elina Alterman

Paid Sick Days Family Economic Security

04/24/13

The Healthy Families Act , a federal bill that would allow workers to earn seven paid sick days a year, was just introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Portland, Ore., was the most recent city to pass an ordinance granting workers earned paid sick leave. Will New York follow suit? The...

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Ruth Martin

04/24/13

Last night, I had a dream about Howard Street. When I was growing up in Chicago's East Rogers Park, Howard Street was the edge of the known universe. That was where the neighborhood changed and white people didn't venture. The Chicago of my youth was a segregated city, as divided as the deep south...

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