Tasha West-Baker can make you a latte, slice your lunch meat or make you a cake at Safeway.

And she could make your entire family ill for days.

West-Baker doesn’t get paid sick days from the grocery chain, where she has worked for seven years. She works four days a week to support three kids on her own. Just staying home with a cold for three days could cost her 75 percent of her weekly paycheck.

That means that when she’s sick, she’s at Safeway — at the Starbucks kiosk, at the deli, in the bakery — and sending her sickness home with our groceries.

“My nose is stuffed, my eyes are a yellowish color,” she told me. “I have to work because I want to be able to feed my kids.”

I would tell you which Safeway, but it doesn’t matter — none of the 36,000 grocery workers in the state receive paid sick days from Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer or QFC.

One in four Puget Sound grocery workers surveyed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) reported coming to work sick in the last year because they didn’t have paid sick days, said Tom Geiger, spokesman for UFCW Local 21.

The union’s contract with the grocery chains expired in May, and has been extended twice, Geiger said. In negotiations for the new contract, the union is asking for seven paid sick days a year. The employers have not yet responded. (My calls to their representatives at Allied Employers were not returned.)

Currently, workers have to be sick for three consecutive days before they are paid for the hours they are missing, sort of like an insurance deductible, Geiger said. You have to take a hit before the help kicks in.

“And after three days, whatever you have turns into a pretty significant illness,” he said.

The problem stems from the fact that most grocery workers only do so part-time; one-third make $10 an hour or less. Since losing a day means a significant cut to their paycheck, they go to work.

Janella Enamorad, 21, has worked at QFC for two years.

Last year, she came down with pneumonia but couldn’t afford to stay home, so she went to work — and did food demonstrations.

“That’s the way it goes,” she said, adding that she eventually stayed home and lost 14 of the 20 hours she works every week. She and West-Baker have seen all kinds of things: Pregnant workers suffering cramps, others working with 100-plus fevers.

Last April, Fred Meyer worker Jason Weaver, 27, called in sick with stomach pains. He was told there was no one available to cover his shift. Weaver got as far as the store parking lot before his appendix burst.

“I was in a lot of pain,” he said. Worse, his sick pay didn’t kick in until he was out for three days.

“You earn your sick pay,” he said. “So if you call in and you’re really sick, you should be able to use it right away.”

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner of the advocacy group MomsRising, is sending some of the local grocery workers’ stories to Congress in the hope that lawmakers pass the Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee paid sick days for all.

“Many of the workers who have the most contact with the public aren’t able to have paid sick days,” she said, adding that while the recent H1N1 epidemic closed businesses and shut down schools, grocery stores — and their workers — kept going.

“H1N1 is a good example of what could be passed from person to person,” said James Apa of Public Health Seattle & King County. “People being able to go home and not expose others is important for ending the spread of infection.”

Geiger acknowledged that it’s hard for workers to ask for more in a weak economy.

“This is not a time when we are going to bargain some get-rich contract,” he said. “We just don’t want them to get kicked in the teeth.”

Nor do we want the public to get kicked into bed after going out to the grocery store for a few things, and coming home with more than we bargained for.

Manuel drove a van for elderly and disabled passengers in Boston, MA, so they could get to doctor appointments or the grocery store. He loved his job. He also had a heart problem that sometimes caused palpitations. His doctor told him not to drive when that happened – it could be dangerous for Manuel and for his passengers. The job provided some paid sick days, but not enough. And for each one Manuel took, he got written up and suspended, and eventually he was fired.

A new study by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago demonstrates that Manuel is not alone. Nearly one in four workers without paid sick days (23%) has lost a job or been told they would lose it for taking time to care for a sick family member or a personal illness.

Lack of paid sick days also hurts public health. More than half of all workers without paid sick days (55%) have gone to work sick. And workers without paid sick days are nearly twice as likely as those with paid sick days to say they’ve sent their child to school or daycare sick.

The NORC study also confirmed that lack of access to paid sick days drives up health care costs.

Workers without access to paid sick days are twice as likely as those with access to say they have gone to the emergency room to get care for themselves because they couldn’t take time off work to get medical care. When it comes to kids or other family members, workers without paid sick days are two-and-a-half times as likely to say they used an emergency room because they couldn’t get off during business hours.

What did it cost Manuel Acevedo to lose his job? He couldn’t pay his rent and was evicted. He had to sell his car and furniture, and move with his family to a smaller place.

In a time when jobs are scarce, people strongly support a job preservation strategy like paid sick days. According to Deborah Leff, head of the Public Welfare Foundation which commissioned the NORC poll,

“a strong majority of people across every racial group, every income level, every age group, every part of the country, and both political parties see paid sick days as a basic worker’s right, just like being paid a decent wage.”

And voters said this is an issue they’ll take to the polls. By a margin of 33 points, voters said they were more likely to support a candidate who favored paid sick days.

For the full study, go to http://publicwelfare.org/NewsRoom/NewsDetails.aspx?newsid=73.

The great turnout of workers with signs and chanting inspired all as we marched into the hearing room. Panels of supporters alternated with opponent panels for a session that lasted more than five hours.

Each panel in favor of the bill featured at least one worker telling compelling stories of the consequences when paid sick days are lacking, and most included business supporters as well. One worker had to testify behind a screen to conceal her identity as she described being fired by a Brooklyn bank for taking a day off to be with her hospitalized 2-year-old, even though her supervisor had said evidence of the hospitalization would be acceptable.  

Opponents continued to promote confusion, as when they tried to argue that any bill should require workers to share the cost of the benefit as they do in New Jersey – referring to what they called that state’s paid sick leave law. Actually New Jersey has a family leave insurance program, designed to provide wage replacement when a worker is out for extended time because of a new baby or serious illness. Council questioning Kevin Miller, a researcher at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, cleared up that and other misinformation.

In addition to employers and workers from groups like Restaurant Opportunities Center and Make the Road, speakers in favor of the bill included experts from the fields of health, research, and employment law. Make the Road worker Maximino Santos, a chef, spoke in Spanish with a translator: “When the boss makes you work when you’re sick, you end up infecting the food and infecting customers. I had to buy a face mask so I wouldn’t infect the food from my coughing. After working five years, I lost my job two months ago because of missed days due to bronchitis and pneumonia.” He held up medical evidence indicating that as a 45-year-old he has the lungs of an 84-year-old man, since he delayed so long taking off work to go to the doctor.

Small business CEO Samira Rajan of Brooklyn testified that allowing staff to take time off when they’re sick “is a basic right and expectation. A sick employee is not performing their job duties, and depresses overall staff morale.” Rajan, who provides paid sick days, said an ailing employee could also pass an illness on to customers.

Sen. Chris Dodd, a lead sponsor of the federal Healthy Families Act, sent a letter of support noting that “New York has the opportunity to lead the nation by standing up for its workers and guaranteeing them paid sick days.”

Even business leaders against the bill had to agree that workers should not be fired if they have to take a sick day. But opponents are trying to delay action by saying they want to do a study to identify those bad employers. The measure has 35 sponsors – enough to overturn a mayoral veto if necessary. It’s time for Council Speaker Christine Quinn to call for a vote!

Public News Service notes the irony:

Over the weekend, working moms might have been treated to cards, flowers and even breakfast in bed. But today, life is back to normal – and for Washington women, that means earning less per hour on the job and receiving fewer workplace benefits than men.

“Washington’s Working Women 2010,” a new report by the Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI), indicates the economic progress of women in the Evergreen State has stalled. Its comparison of jobs and wages shows almost a $5-per-hour gap in median wages between women and men – largely because of the types of work they do.

However, report author Marilyn Watkins says, in the deep recession of the last two years, both sexes have been affected by businesses cutting hours and benefits.

A report from the Economic Opportunity Institute notes the gulf separating men’s and women’s earnings in Washington State has expanded over the past two decades. Women’s average monthly paychecks were just 63% of men’s in 2008, compared to 67% in 1990. And while benefits like paid sick days and paid family leave are critical for women, who are often the primary caregivers for children and elderly parents, 41% of Washington workers – 1.2 million people – can’t take a paid sick day at work.

While women have experienced fewer job losses since the start of the recession, inequality on payday has persisted – with men earning substantially higher wages than women in every industry in Washington. And lower wages lead to higher rates of poverty among women, especially for mothers with young children.

The full story from Public News Service is here; download Washington’s Working Women 2010 here.

When citizen delegates from Washington State converged in Washington DC to urge their representatives to take action on paid family leave and paid sick days, Selena Allen of Tacoma (whose story EOI has profiled before), and EOI Policy Director Marilyn Watkins were interviewed by NPR reporter Jennifer Ludden:

For millions of Americans, a major illness or family crisis means time off work with no pay. In recent years, several states have passed their own paid leave programs. Half a dozen more are trying but are largely stalled by the bad economy. Now, the Obama administration’s proposed budget aims to encourage states to push ahead.

Paid leave would help people like Selena Allen of Tacoma, Wash. When she found out she was pregnant with her second child, Allen started saving all her vacation and sick days. She hoarded away enough to take one month of maternity leave. Then her son was born a month and a half early. Allen, who worked at a nonprofit at the time, decided she simply couldn’t afford to take any more time off — time that would have been unpaid. She postponed her maternity leave and returned to work a painful four days after giving birth.

California enacted a paid family leave law in 2002, and New Jersey followed suit in 2008. And in 2007, Washington state made headlines when it passed a paid parental leave law. The law would provide new parents up to $250 a week for up to five weeks. Advocates wanted it to include other kinds of family leave, such as major illness, and still hope to broaden it eventually.

But the bigger dilemma was that lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to fund the program. Unlike California and New Jersey, Washington does not have an existing disability insurance program, so it had to create a funding mechanism from scratch. The state set up a task force to do that. Then, says task force member Marilyn Watkins, of the Economic Opportunity Institute, the recession hit.

“A new program, with a new source of funding, in the face of cutting so many other programs, was just not a feasible situation,” Watkins says. Washington state’s paid leave program has been put on hold until 2012, but Watkins hopes the federal government can rescue it sooner.

Read (or listen to) the full story here.

The majority of participants – union members and business owners, immigrant rights activists and faith leaders, representatives from groups focused on low-wage women, children, seniors, economic development, domestic violence and public health – came from the 14 FVAW states. As one participant put it, “It feels like we’re everywhere!”

NPR's Maria Hinojosa with Family Values @ Work activists from Wisconsin.

The summit began with a panel that laid out the economic and public policy context for paid sick days. Speakers included pollster Celinda Lake, Department of Labor economist William Spriggs, and Letty Mederos, Deputy Chief of Staff to Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

Spriggs reminded the audience of the need for a federal solution. “It’s good for states to set the pace,” he said, “but some folks live in states like Mississippi and Alabama.” His message was that workers are also consumers and that policies like paid sick days are job protectors. “Eating the little fish means eventually there will be no fish to eat,” he said.

A second panel addressed ways to continue to build the broad-based coalitions that can win change. Panelists brainstormed ways to reach small business owners, and suggested every coalition member ask their congregation to support the campaign.

After a working lunch in which different affinity groups met to strategize, summit attendees attended workshops on campaign mobilization, story-telling, media outreach, coalition-building, and power analysis.

Energized by these learning opportunities and by the chance to meet others from around the country, the attendees were then treated to a reception. NPR’s Maria Hinojosa served as the emcee, offering a special welcome to the guest of honor, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Sec. Solis told of her parents’ struggle to provide their family with economic security, her dad’s involvement in the Teamsters union, and of her own passionate commitment to women’s rights and the enactment of federal policies that allow workers to be both good employees and good family members.

Rounding out the evening were comments from Kim Chester of Cartersville, GA, and Rob Everts, co-president of Equal Exchange in West Bridgewater, MA. Kim Chester was joined by her husband and three children as she described what it meant to the well-being of their daughter, who has cerebral palsy, that both her parents have paid sick days and flexibility to use them for family members. Rob Everts talked about his company’s policy, which includes up to 12 paid sick days for their 110 employees. “We have never regretted our policy,” he said, “and believe it contributes to our growth, profitability and high retention rate of employees.”

On the second day of the gathering, more than 150 activists attended a special media event on Capitol Hill. Terrell McSweeny, Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President and Deputy Assistant to the President, expressed the Obama Administration’s support for paid sick days and paid family leave. She was followed by Kevin Miller of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research presenting the findings of a new study that shows that paid sick days help contain health care costs, making these policies a critical companion to national health care reform.

Workers from Oregon, Washington, Georgia, Massachusetts and Washington shared personal experiences of the consequences when the policies we’re fighting for are lacking. We also heard from business owners from New Jersey and New York, who reiterated that doing the right thing is also the smart thing.

Senator Christopher Dodd spoke to the crowd about his ongoing work to build support for the Healthy Families Act and, as he prepares for retirement, to cultivate new champions on Capitol Hill for policies that value families at work. Sen. Dodd’s speech was followed by an impromptu visit from Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, sponsor of the Balancing Act, which would enact a wide range of family-supporting workplace policies. She recalled her experiences as a single working mom and called on the activists to share their personal stories with policymakers.

After the media event, the attendees, organized in state delegations, visited the offices of their U.S. senators and representatives to share the research, stories, and best practices that they learned about at the summit and from their own experiences.

Family Values @ Work activists from Georgia bring their stories to Capitol Hill.

Many thanks to the funders who made these two days possible – the Public Welfare Foundation who funded the Paid Sick Days Summit portion, Ford Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Moriah Fund and Rockefeller Family Fund.

“Making It Work” was widely covered by the national media, including in The Nation, In These Times, McClatchy news service (stories in numerous papers and blogs, including Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Denver Post, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Anchorage Daily News, Idaho Statesman, Think Progress, Daily Kos, Yahoo Daily News, UPI , and Business Insider), National Public Radio, and many local TV and radio news programs.

We’ve been bombarded with ads promising the perfect gift for Mom, from chocolates and flowers to iPhones. Here’s my list of what mothers want:

The right to care for a sick child or personal illness without losing her job or creating a public health hazard. I start with paid sick days as a minimum labor standard, in honor of Monique Evans in Portland, Maine, and JoCasta Zamarripa of Milwaukee. Monique’s weekly hours at a fast- food restaurant were cut to 15 after she stayed home with her sick toddler. JoCasta, like six out of seven food service workers, has been forced to serve you flu with your soup; staying home could have cost her not only a paycheck but her job.

The right to coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Half of private sector workforce employees aren’t covered by the act because they work for an employer with fewer than 50 workers, haven’t been on the job for at least 12 months or work less than 25 hours a week. We need to expand this law to all employees after 90 days of employment. I ask this in the name of Dana Wilson of Milwaukee, who lost her job because her father didn’t wait to get sick until his daughter had been on the job a year.

The right to time to care for a newborn or partner without losing her home. Many who are covered under FMLA can’t take the time because it’s unpaid. I ask for family leave insurance in the names of Selena Allen in Auburn, Wash. Selena gave birth on a Thursday to a premature son and returned to work the following Monday, saving her limited paid time for when her son came home from the hospital.

An end to maternal profiling. We need to add “family responsibility” to categories protected under anti-discrimination law. This request is in honor of Kiki Peppard of Effort, Pa., who has been fighting to change the law since she wound up on welfare because employers there wouldn’t hire a single mother.

The right to care for one’s partner even if that person is of the same gender. I add this provision in honor of Rosemary, who couldn’t be with her partner when she had surgery for breast cancer, because it didn’t qualify as a “family” medical leave. “I’d have used vacation days,” Rosemary said, “but we have to give advance notice and the cancer wasn’t considerate enough to warn us.”

The right to attend children’s school activities. This is in tribute to Diana, the child of a long-term corporate employee in Milwaukee who says the company’s demands and inflexibility meant she “never saw her mom at sporting events, had to make her own meals since the age of 8, and grew up in second place to a job.”

An end to mandatory overtime. This item is in honor of Vicki Underwood of Atlanta, who was fired after 20 years of work at an area printing plant for politely refusing to work an extra three hours because she had to register her two kids for school.

A recognition that men are parents and have parents and also need time to care.

My list flows from deeply held American values: that no one should have to risk a job to be a good family member or put a loved one at risk in order to keep a job. Mothers want basic standards that guarantee these rights to everyone.

Oh, about the chocolate, flowers, iPhones? Do deliver, kids and partners. But you could also get your mom a membership to a group that works on these issues. And make a pledge that every election, you’ll vote only for candidates who’ll ensure that family values don’t end at the workplace door.

This is a man who knows about foodborne illness from his job – and from his children and grandchildren.  As a professional, he knows the consequences when 76 million people a year in the U.S. are sickened by foodborne illness. Of those, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention say 300,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die. Lillie estimates that guaranteeing paid sick days would cut the number of such incidents in half.

He also speaks from personal experience: “My own children and grandchildren have been sickened by minimum-wage restaurant workers who could not afford to miss a day’s work so they came to work ill (and infectious).”

And, Lillie notes that many of these companies do just fine offering paid sick days in other countries, as he saw during the years he lived in Europe and Asia. “The fast food companies that testify before Congress that mandating benefits would destroy their business model,” write Lillie, “do exactly that in Europe and Asia because the law compels them to do so.”

So paid sick days have on their side the backing of experts, the health of our kids and grandkids, and the experience of other countries. It’s time to guarantee them to all workers.