Rally in Support of Paid Sick Days at the State House Provides Strong Kick-off for Issue

On Thursday February 12th the Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition, which is made up of numerous organizations that all support An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days, sponsored a rally and press conference in the Nurses Hall of the Massachusetts State House. Supporters at the event then joined other members of the Coalition to deliver Valentine cookies to legislators with messages from constituents underscoring the importance of giving workers paid sick days in Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes gave spirited remarks on the inherent need for all Massachusetts workers to have paid sick days. President Haynes emphasized how the Massachusetts AFL-CIO represents over 400,000 working families, most of whom already have paid sick days because they belong to unions and have collective bargaining agreements. This fight for paid sick days is one for all workers, union or not. “Let’s face it, everyone gets sick,” Haynes said. “Yet over 40% of all workers in this Commonwealth – 1.4 million workers – don’t get even a single paid sick day. Not enough workers are fortunate enough to be in a union where their collective bargaining agreement provides them with paid sick days.”

A special presentation was given by Kevin Miller of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, who presented the IWPR’s research on the high cost of coming to work sick. Employees who go to work sick out of fear for losing their job or because they desperately need that day’s pay are less productive and infect others, which ends up costing more to businesses than if they had just provided paid sick days to their employees. He also discussed how paid sick days are critical to containing health care costs in the Commonwealth, and to public health as a whole. Click here to read the report.

Other speakers included Mike Fadel, Executive Vice President of 1199SEIU, Rocio Saenz, President of SEIU 615, lead sponors of the bill Senator Patricia Jehlen and Representative Kay Khan, as well as co-sponsor Representative Jason Lewis, who is a former small business owner turned state representative.

Click here to read the Massachusetts AFL-CIO's 2009-2010 Legislative Agenda, which An Act Establishing Paid Sick Days is a part of.