I step into the role of Executive Director of Family Values @ Work as we enter a new decade and a year of extraordinary potential for our network, our movement and our nation.
Since we began in 2003, leaders across our network have fought for – and won – 60 new, time-to-care laws protecting 50 million workers and their families. With each win, we are building the world we need and deserve, where our economic livelihood and our ability to care are in harmony. And with each win, we incrementally reverse the devaluation of caregiving in the home and in the workplace, which is rooted in this country’s dependence on free and cheap labor from women, enslaved people, and immigrants.
These state wins have laid the groundwork for federal standards to protect all working people. We are at a critical moment of opportunity to transform the nation in the next 3 to 5 years by winning a strong federal paid leave policy.
Last year, together with allies, we launched the Paid Leave For All campaign. We committed to principles that ensure a national policy will be comprehensive and inclusive: high enough wage replacement so workers can afford to take the leave and job protection so they are safe to use it; sufficient time to rest, recover or care for someone; and a definition of family that recognizes all our loved ones.
At the same time, we face a great risk of being pressured to settle for something with the title of “paid family leave” that would exclude large masses of people, weaken existing safety net programs and fail to provide sustainable relief. Some politicians are looking to capitalize on paid leave’s popularity among voters with fake proposals that check the box while undermining real policy reform.
We know that the key to winning a comprehensive, inclusive policy—one that does not replicate this country’s history of carving out the most vulnerable workers from economic justice policy wins—is a strong network, guided by leaders whose lives have been impacted by the lack of paid leave and to whom we hold ourselves and policymakers accountable. This is why we formed the Worker Advisory Group – a team of workers and caregivers fighting for paid leave across the country – at the core of this national campaign. They will offer a clear alternative to business as usual, so lawmakers listen not to lobbyists but to the people actually impacted by the policies they pass.
I’m proud that Family Values @ Work is harnessing our collective capacity to ensure those seeking office see the interdependence of care both within and outside the home. While it’s exciting to hear candidates call for paid leave, we must raise the bar for our votes – up and down the ballot – to distinguish between proposals that will reduce inequality and those that would increase it.
In this moment, we must root our work in a deep commitment to a racial, gender, and economic justice movement, use our current fights to build long-term power for our communities, and build bridges and solidarity across our diverse communities and movements for justice – because we know that our liberation is bound together.
Over the past year, Family Values @ Work has taken several key steps to strengthen our capacity as a movement network. We’ve just completed our first network-wide assessment of “core capacities,” asking ourselves and our state anchor partners to what extent we have clear accountability to and trusted relationships with communities most impacted by the lack of paid leave, and also whether we practice inclusive, transparent and accountable methods of communication, decision-making, resource and recognition sharing, and managing conflict. We convened a new caucus of leaders of color from our network who are helping determine what we need to take our leadership as women of color to the next level in the economic justice field. And, last year we recruited and seated a new board that is majority women of color and is eager to double down on this leaderful investment strategy.
With your support, we will challenge ourselves to live our values with even more courage and intent. And we are hopeful that we will see the outcome in policy and electoral progress.
