Speaker Quinn: Listen to the Children

Council Member Gale Brewer, Awilda Valdez.

Who are the best people to deliver 50,000 signatures on a petition about paid sick days to City Hall?

Kids, of course.

Babies in strollers, children of all ages, rallied with activists October 4 in New York City on the steps of City Hall. They wanted to deliver the petitions to Speaker Christine Quinn, demanding that she allow a vote on the paid sick days bill.

Why kids? Because they suffer most when their parents or caregivers can’t earn paid sick days.

They suffer when they get sick and parents can’t stay home with them.

When a parent stays home anyway and loses a paycheck or a job, kids feel the bite if there’s less to eat, or an eviction, or the lights get turned off.

More than a million New Yorkers lack paid sick days at their jobs. The burden falls heaviest on working parents.

CSSNY photo

The kids in attendance came with members of the many groups that participated in the petition drive. These include the NYC Campaign for Paid Sick Days, Working Families, A Better Balance, the Community Service Society, Moveon.org, MomsRising.org, ColorofChange.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, DailyKos, Restaurant Opportunity Center, New York Communities for Change, United New York, ALIGN, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Manhattan Young Democrats, the New York Paid Leave Coalition and others.

They brought their message to the Speaker:  It’s time to listen to the children.