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 Working families confront crisis each day: an elderly parent suffers a serious fall, so someone has to leave work and care for her. A sick child requires constant attention from his single mom, who must take the day off. A flexible schedule would help ease these difficult burdens, but the employer isn’t concerned. It is unfortunate for the worker that lawmakers would rather focus on the needs of that employer. Instead, the employer is the one who feels threatened by work-family laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act. Yet, it’s the worker who spends longer hours on the job, taking less time away from the job, and commuting farther to get to the job, while trying to balance the needs of that job with those of the family. No longer are work and home separate entities, since each has come to profoundly impact the other, creating much conflict and stress for the working family. New Guide To Help Unions Develop an Effective Work Family Agenda A Job and A Life: Organizing and Bargaining for Work Family Issues, a new comprehensive guide from The Labor Project for Working Families, is designed for union leaders, activists, negotiators and organizers in need of information and resources that will enable them to bargain successfully for work and family issues and bring a positive change to the workplace. Given today’s political climate, the labor movement’s fight to protect work-family issues has never been so vital. While unions have had much success in securing and improving workplace rights by negotiating strong contracts and advocating public policy, there remains more to do. In the words of Netsy Firestein, Executive Director of the Labor Project, “[U]nions are at the forefront of changing the workplace for working families. The Labor Project will continue to provide the tools and resources to support this important work of unions.” A Job and A Life tells union leaders how to: form committees, establish a fund, negotiate “family-friendly” contract language, understand current state family leave laws, create a work-family survey, and adopt a work-family bill of rights. With this guide, unions can plan effective work family agendas, win significant family-friendly provisions for their members and help develop public policy benefiting all working families. Working families have basic needs: livable wages, affordable health insurance, guaranteed retirement benefits and a safe and healthy workplace. They also need childcare, elder care, paid sick leave, family and parental leave and more freedom to control their hours of work. This guide is one resource to have that can ensure these basic needs. This guide is available for purchase ($10.00) from the Labor Project for Working Families. Please call for bulk prices. (The contact information is listed below.) The Labor Project for Working Families Founded in 1992, the Labor Project for Working Families is a national nonprofit advocacy group providing technical assistance, resources and education to unions and their members on family issues in the workplace. The Labor Project’s focus is to influence unions and lawmakers to strengthen work and family issues through collective bargaining, legislation and public policy. The Labor Project has also developed a work family curriculum. Contact Information The Labor Project for Working Families Phone: (510) 643-7088
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