Tag Archives: United States Constitution

From left to right, Kelly Sakai, Janet Gornick, Dina Bakst, Barbara Wankoff, Marcee Harris Schwartz

Families & Flexibility Forum

On Monday we co-hosted a forum on Families & Flexibility with NYC Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. We are excited to see this conversation garnering attention and eager to work with city officials to develop solutions in the coming months. Read more

Peggy Young v. UPS

Earlier this month A Better Balance and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) jointly filed a friend of the court (amicus) brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a woman who was forced off her job while pregnant, losing income and her health benefits in the process. Peggy Young worked for UPS in Maryland when she became pregnant and submitted a doctor’s note with a lifting restriction. She was told that she could not have light duty because of a company-wide policy, so she would have to resort to unpaid leave. This was despite the fact that UPS provided light duty to many other workers. Our brief uses real stories to explain to the high court how policies like UPS’s are clearly illegal under the plain text of the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and contrary to Congressional intent. Click here to read more and click here to read the brief.

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Babygate, the Sequel.

This month the Feminist Press re-published our guidebook for expecting and new parents about their workplace rights.

Babygate: How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace, has a new cover, updated content and has been generating buzz, from the New Republic and The Maria Shriver Project this summer to the Brian Leher Show on WNYC in September. Coming up next? Babygate, the website. Stay tuned!

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ABB Senior Staff Attorney Jared Make (far right) with other advocates after the Paterson law was passed.

Paid Sick Time Victories
The momentum for paid sick time is undeniable. In the past three months, we have helped to win seven new paid sick time laws across the country! In July, San Diego and Eugene (Oregon) both passed paid sick time laws. In September, California became the second state to legally guarantee paid sick time for its workers! This statewide victory will extend paid sick time to more than six million workers in California who currently receive no paid sick days for personal or family health reasons. Also in September we helped to pass four new paid sick time laws In New Jersey: the cities of Paterson, East Orange, Passaic, and Irvington recently joined Newark and Jersey City in ensuring that workers can earn paid sick time.

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ABB Southern Office Director Elizabeth Gedmark (far right) with members of Respect the Bump and other advocates at Chicago Know Your Rights training.

Know Your Rights

ABB is continuing to educate pregnant women and caregivers around the country about their legal rights. For example, our Southern Office recently provided educational Know Your Rights materials in Nashville, TN at an event called the “Best Baby Shower”. Hundreds of pregnant women and their partners were in attendance. ABB is also working with our partners at Respect The Bump (a group of pregnant and formerly pregnant workers at Walmart who have banded together to create change at the superstore) to educate workers about their rights under Walmart’s new policy on Accomodations in Employment.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Protect our families from chemical disasters

11/22/2014 Nativegrl77

ACTION ALERT
Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to Improve Chemical Plant Safety

Right now, 134 million Americans live in danger zones around facilities that use or store hazardous chemicals. And with around 30,000 documented incidents reported annually—from West Virginia to California—we remain devastatingly ill-prepared to protect the public from chemical disasters.

In fact, last year, 15 people died and three schools were destroyed as a result of a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. After this tragic and avoidable accident, President Barack Obama took an important step to prevent disasters like this from happening again, calling on federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to strengthen chemical plant safety regulations.

Tell Administrator Gina McCarthy that the EPA must improve chemical plant safety and ensure communities get the scientific information they need to make informed decisions about their health, safety, and environment.

For the first time in decades, we have a chance to make real strides in improving chemical safety and security. The EPA needs to hear your support to improve chemical plant safety and prevent future disasters. Tell Administrator McCarthy that the EPA must improve access to information about toxic chemicals, require the use of safer chemical processes, and protect vulnerable communities.

Let’s make sure the EPA enacts the necessary standards to keep our families safe from chemical disasters.

Sincerely,

Danielle Fox
Outreach Coordinator
Center for Science and Democracy
Union of Concerned Scientists

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Pregnant and pink-slipped?

11/20/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Emily J. Martin, National Women’s Law CenterWe get calls all the time.

Calls from pregnant workers whose employers have given them an impossible choice: They can either lose their jobs or endanger their pregnancies.
Why is this still happening? Well, when it comes to pregnant workers, employers and courts are misunderstanding the law.
Enough is enough. Tell the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to issue strong and clear guidance on reasonable job accommodations for the pregnant workers who need them.
Without clear guidance, pregnant workers who need a temporary change on the job are often treated worse than employees with similar limitations arising out of disability or injury. For example, many workplaces give a worker with a back injury a temporary reprieve from having to lift heavy objects — but if a pregnant worker asks for the same accommodation, she could be fired.
The consequences for pregnant workers can be devastating. Here are just three examples of women featured in a new report issued today by NWLC and A Better Balance:

A pregnant fast-food worker in Washington, D.C., was fired after her employer refused to let her drink water on the job.
A pregnant cashier at a Dollar Tree store wasn’t allowed to sit on a stool, even though workers in other Dollar Tree stores did. Instead, she was required to stand for 8 to 10 hours at a stretch — which landed her in the emergency room.
When a pregnant truck driver in Maryland asked for help with occasional heavy lifting, she was forced onto unpaid leave — and she lost her health insurance.

These stories didn’t have to have a bad ending. These women just needed temporary adjustments to their jobs to continue working — the same sorts of adjustments their employers routinely provided to co-workers with disabilities or injuries.
Pregnant workers can’t wait. It’s time for the EEOC to issue strong and clear guidance on employers’ legal obligation to accommodate pregnant workers.
Send your message now.
Thanks again for all of your support.
Sincerely,

Emily J. Martin Vice President and General Counsel National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Want to read more? Check out NWLC and A Better Balance’s new report featuring personal accounts of women who lost their jobs, health insurance and more — and women who had no choice but to keep working and risk their health.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

No More Waiting

11/14/2014 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

President Obama Is Moving Forward On Executive Action That Could Halt 5 Million Deportations

President Obama will disregard Republican complaints and sign an executive action that could shield up to five million immigrants from deportation, the New York Times reports. The official announcement would “significantly refocus the activities of the government’s 12,000 immigration agents,” and could be made as early as next week.

The first piece of the order, according to White House officials, will be to protect the parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents from deportation by allowing them to obtain legal work permits. Depending on whether the order is limited to parents who have been undocumented and living in the United States for five years or for ten years, it could affect between 2.5 million and 3.3 million people. The President is reported to be considering a second piece to extend protections to immigrants who came here as children, and to their parents. This could affect up to one million or more additional undocumented immigrants.

The action will also clarify who should be high priority and low priority for deportation, in order to focus enforcement on violent criminals instead of breaking up families. Finally, it will also enhance border security and expand opportunities for immigrants with high-tech skills.

It’s not the comprehensive immigration reform that the Senate passed and the American people support, but it’s a very important step. And it upholds President Obama’s promise last week after the midterms that he won’t “just wait” for Republicans to stop stalling on the issue.

BOTTOM LINE: President Obama’s commitment to move forward with an executive action to halt deportations is an important step toward helping to fix our broken immigration system. But it does not remove the pressure from Congressional Republicans to do what the American people want and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Your Update from the White House Business Team

11/14/2014 Nativegrl77

The White House

As we move into the fall, we have been quite busy here at the White House. President Obama is traveling in Asia this week. On Tuesday, he and President Xi Jinping of China jointly announced a plan to cooperate on climate change and clean energy. Combined, the U.S. and China account for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Going forward, both countries agreed to set aggressive targets to reduce emissions, marking the first time China has agreed to cap its CO2 emissions. Read the fact sheet and joint announcement on climate change.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and China also agreed to increase the validity of short-term tourist and business visas issued to each other’s citizens. With 1.8 million Chinese travelers visiting the United States annually, China is the fastest-growing outbound tourism market in the world. Tourist activity from China contributes roughly $21.1 billion to the U.S. economy and supports more than 109,000 American jobs. This week’s agreement will provide a significant boost to these numbers and the travel and tourism industry overall.

Finally, on Monday, the President made an important announcement regarding net neutrality, urging the FCC to implement the strongest possible rules to safeguard the Internet.

You can read more about these issues below. As always, please don’t hesitate to be in touch with any questions or concerns at Business@who.eop.gov.

The White House Business Team,

Ari, Nate, Sam, and Quinn

U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change and Clean Energy Cooperation

Building on strong progress during the first six years of the Administration, President Obama announced a new target on Tuesday to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. At the same time, President Xi Jinping of China announced targets to peak CO2 emissions around 2030, with the intention to try to peak early, and to increase the non-fossil fuel share of all energy to around 20 percent by 2030.

Together, the U.S. and China account for more than one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Tuesday’s joint announcement, the culmination of months of bilateral dialogue, highlights the critical role the two countries must play in addressing climate change. The actions they announced are part of the longer-range effort to achieve the deep decarbonization of the global economy over time. These actions will also inject momentum into the global climate negotiations on the road to reaching a successful new climate agreement next year in Paris.

See the fact sheet, and read the joint announcement from President Obama and President Xi.

President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping of China hold a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Nov. 12, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Obama Urges the FCC to Implement Stronger Net Neutrality Rules

On Monday, President Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take up the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality, the principle that says Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all Internet traffic equally.

The President has been a strong and consistent advocate of net neutrality throughout his Presidency. His plan would reclassify consumer broadband services under what’s known as Title II of the Telecommunications Act. It would serve as a “basic acknowledgement of the services ISPs provide to American homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network works for everyone — not just one or two companies.”

Read the full plan, and watch President Obama explain why these steps are so important.

Supporting American Job Growth and Strengthening Ties by Extending U.S.-China Visa Validity for Tourists, Business Travelers, and Students

On Monday, President Obama announced that the U.S. and China are concluding a reciprocal visa validity arrangement during his visit that will strengthen our ever-broadening economic and people-to-people ties. Both countries have agreed to increase the validity of short-term tourist and business visas issued to each other’s citizens from one to ten years — the longest validity possible under U.S. law — and increase the validity of student and exchange visas from one to five years. The United States began issuing visas in accordance with the new reciprocal agreement yesterday.

This arrangement will improve trade, investment, and business ties by facilitating travel and offering easier access to both economies. Extended validity visas for students and exchange visitors will boost the bonds between our two peoples and facilitate travel for outstanding students from around the world who attend U.S. institutions of higher education. As a result of this arrangement, the United States hopes to welcome a growing share of eligible Chinese travelers, inject billions in the U.S. economy and create enough demand to support hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. jobs. Travelers will continue to be subject to all the same legal and security reviews that currently apply to visa applicants.

See the fact sheet here.

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the APEC CEO Summit at the Chinese National Convention Center in Beijing, China, Nov. 10, 2014. Seated on stage is Andrew Liveris, President, Chairman & CEO of The Dow Chemical Company. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Supporting Economic Growth at Home and Abroad by Eliminating Trade Barriers on Information Technology Products

At the APEC leaders meeting on Monday, President Obama announced that the U.S. and China had reached an understanding on a bilateral agreement on expanding the scope of goods covered by the Information Technology Agreement (ITA). This agreement paves the way for the resumption and swift conclusion of the first major tariff-cutting deal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 17 years, and promises a major boost to U.S. technology exports and the jobs that support them.

In remarks at the APEC plenary session, President Obama praised the agreement as an important step in completing the final ITA agreement:

It was APEC’s work that led to the Information Technology Agreement, which we are now negotiating to expand. So, it is fitting that we are here with our APEC colleagues to share the news that the United States and China have reached an understanding that we hope will contribute to a rapid conclusion of the broader negotiations in Geneva.

See the fact sheet here.

President Barack Obama, with U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman, delivers remarks during a TPP meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, Nov. 10, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Accelerating Advanced Manufacturing in America

The President recently participated in a meeting with his American Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) Steering Committee. AMP — led by its co-chairs, Dow’s Andrew Liveris and MIT’s Rafael Reif — presented its final report with a set of new recommendations. In addition to discussing the recommendations, the meeting was an opportunity for the President and AMP Steering Committee members to discuss the additional policy steps the President is taking to respond to them. Read the fact sheet on new actions taken to further strengthen manufacturing here.

The President created AMP — a working group of 19 leaders in industry, academia, and labor — in June 2011 as part of his continuing effort to maintain the competitive edge on emerging technologies and invest in the future of our manufacturing sector. We’ve come a long way since then, and the policies fueled by AMP’s recommendations have been a big contributor to that progress.

Read the rest of the article by Secretary Pritzker to see the progress we’ve made.