Honoring Our 2015 Game Changers!

In this extraordinary year of progress for paid sick days and family and medical leave insurance, Family Values @ Work is proud to announce our 2015 Game Changers. We will present the awards on November 18 in a reception from 6:00 – 7:30 at Covington and Burling in Washington, DC, with special guest Valerie Jarrett, senior White House advisor.

This year’s awardees are:

Policy Champions:  DC Councilmembers David Grosso and Elissa Silverman. These two elected officials are sponsoring the strongest paid family and medical leave insurance bill in the country and are determined to see it pass.

Labor Champion:  Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO. Liz has raised the visibility of these issues and helped deepen the engagement of labor in our campaigns. The AFL-CIO has also strongly opposed the bills driven by the American Legislative Exchange Council and big corporate lobbies to take away power from local communities and voters on issues like paid sick days and raising the minimum wage.

Worker Activist:  Maria Fortes from New Bedford, MA. As a leader in the Coalition for Social Justice and Raise Up Massachusetts, Maria exemplifies the outstanding work engaging thousands of Massachusetts voters in the successful ballot initiative for Earned Sick Time.

Business Champion:  Dave Bolotsky, founder and CEO of Uncommon Goods in New York City. Not only does Dave have a strong commitment to support his own staff, he has also been a business advocate for a New York State Paid Family Leave Insurance program – so that all New Yorkers can afford to take the time they need to heal, bond with a new baby or care for a seriously ill loved one.

Community Partner:  Andy Garcia, Program Manager, Equality Federation. Andy has helped lead a terrific collaboration among work-family groups and LGBTQ groups to make sure our campaigns push for the strongest definition of families (“people related by blood or affinity”) in the bills we support. This collaboration is a joint project of Family Values @ Work and A Better Balance.