The paid leave movement has seen tremendous progress this year – from adoption of a paid sick and safe leave ordinance in Dallas, to two states winning comprehensive paid family and medical leave policies. We use the occasion of our annual GameChanger Awards to honor some of the champions of our work. Share with us in celebrating this year’s cohort:
Policy Champions
CT State Sen. Julie Kushner and Rep. Robyn Porter
State Senator Julie Kushner and Representative Robyn Porter, both of Connecticut, are our 2019 Policy Champions for their outstanding leadership on the successful fight for paid leave in that state.
Currently Senate Chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, Sen. Kushner has long been an advocate for work-family issues. Sen. Kushner ran on a platform of paid family and medical leave and has continued to fight for access to paid leave as well as affordable healthcare, a woman’s right to choose, pay equity, and public education. Also a champion of labor, Sen. Kushner was elected Director by the members of the United Auto Workers, Region 9A covering the New England States, a portion of New York and Puerto Rico.
Representative Robyn Porter is chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee for the Connecticut House. Her nearly 8-hour debate to establish the Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance Program, one of the most generous paid leave programs in the country, punctuates her commitment to Connecticut workers. A former employee of the Communications Workers of America, Representative Porter has championed legislation that strengthened gender pay equity laws, which had not been updated since 1963 and led a 14-hour debate in the House to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 an hour by 2023.
Business Champions:
Ben Verhoeven & Kathryn Weeks, owners of Peoria Gardens, Albany, OR.
Peoria Gardens is a second-generation, family-owned greenhouse owned by our Business Champions, Ben Verhoeven and Kathryn Weeks. Ben and Kathryn have been very active in the campaign to win paid family and medical leave in Oregon. Much of their work has been ensuring that agricultural workers get access to paid leave benefits. They write on their website, “We take care of our employees by offering health care, paid sick leave, twelve weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave, a pension and vacation. Our employees are like family and we couldn’t be more proud of our team.”
Community Partner:
Caring Across Generations
Caring Across Generations (CAG) is the recipient of the 2019 Community Partner award. CAG brings together families, caregivers, people with disabilities, and aging Americans to transform the way we care. By engaging those who provide care alongside those who need care, and by creative use of popular culture, CAG has been successfully shifting the narrative. They are also promoting a bold new policy, Universal Family Care, to address the continuum of care including child care, paid leave and long-term care.
Labor Champion:
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), AFL-CIO is a model for how unions can both build a powerful membership and work closely with community partners. The relationship between the WSLC, its Government Affairs staff, and our state partner, Economic Opportunity Institute, has forged new worker protections across Washington, including passage of minimum wage and earned sick leave, and more recently paid family and medical leave. Now WSLC is continuing their leadership role in the implementation of these wins.
Worker Activists:
Marilyn Washington, San Antonio, TX
Margarita del Cid, Dallas, TX
Margarita del Cid urgently needed paid sick time when her daughter’s appendix burst and she was rushed to the hospital for surgery. Margarita was able to stay with her daughter because she had paid sick time as a worker. She told city council members her daughter would not have made it otherwise. Margarita has been a fighter for working people for decades, including in her native country. As a leader in Workers Defense Project for several years, she has spent many hours organizing other members and advocating for policy.
After several years as a home care worker, Marilyn Washington had severe pain in her wrist but no paid sick time to go to the doctor. She worked through the pain and wound up getting worse and having to miss three months of work. Her electricity and power were turned off. Marilyn became active in the Texas Organizing Project and a leader in the Paid Sick Leave Campaign Committee. When business associations sued the City of San Antonio to stop the paid leave ordinance, she stepped forward as a lead defendant.
It truly takes a village – of advocates, workers, and policy experts – to move the needle on paid leave, and we’re grateful for the work each of our champions and all of our partners nationwide have invested on this critical issue. We invite you to join us in this work by donating to FV@W and finding a local partner in your state. Only by valuing caregiving and enabling people to be good providers and good family members will we ever achieve racial, gender and economic equity.
Host Committee: Melanie Campbell, Candice Cook Simmons, Yanira Cruz, Adrienne Elrod, Holly Fechner, Pronita Gupta, Karen Nussbaum, Kim Otis, Ai-jen Poo, Will Robinson, Yadira Sanchez, Rinku Sen, Sara Steffens, Robin Williams
