For over a decade, the Washington Work and Family Coalition has brought together seniors, women, labor unions, health professionals, children’s advocates, faith communities, low income workers, employers, and policy makers. With staffing from the Economic Opportunity Institute, the Coalition has successfully led the fight for state-wide legislation that allows workers with paid leave to use it to care for sick family members, and that lays the foundation for a family and medical leave insurance program for all workers.
We’re currently partnering with Healthy Tacoma, to ensure workers in the city of Tacoma have the right to earn paid sick days. In coordination with the statewide Coalition, the Seattle Coalition for a Healthy Workforce launched the Seattle Paid Sick and Safe Leave campaign in the aftermath of the H1N1 flu epidemic. Thanks to the hard work of all our coalition partners, the law went into effect on September 1, 2012. Research shows the law is working – without hampering business growth.
We’ve also continued our efforts to pass paid sick days at the state level, and are launching a campaign to fund and implement the family and medical leave insurance program, including expanding to cover a workers own serious health condition and caring for an ill family member, in addition to caring for a new child.
Twitter: @waworkfam and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
