Among the things that didn’t make it out alive from the mad-scramble final days of the recently ended Mass. legislative session: a bill that would have guaranteed paid sick days to workers.
The Paid Sick Days Act would have required employers to give employees at least seven paid sick days, which could have been used for themselves or to care for a family member. The bill had been endorsed by the Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Workforce Development but died in the Ways and Means Committee.
The bill had been pushed by the Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition, an organization of dozens of religious, social justice, labor and community groups. Members include the local chapter of MomsRising, the political action arm of Amherst’s MotherWoman.
MomsRising’s lobbying efforts on behalf of the bill were especially creative: members and supporters made numerous trips to the Statehouse—kids in tow—where they handed out cookies and bottles of hand sanitizer, among other goodies, to lawmakers. The group brought particular attention to how the lack of paid sick days affects Massachusetts families. When parents don’t have sick days, the group argued, they might find themselves going to work sick, or sending a sick child to school or daycare—spreading infectious diseases in the process.
In a recent email to supporters, MomsRising vowed to keep up the fight. With the next legislative session just around the corner, the group is asking for help getting a new sick-day campaign on track. “We’re already getting ready for the next leg of our relay to the finish line—and our best campaign and citizen engagement ideas come from our members,” the group wrote. MomsRising is also seeking stories about people’s experiences without paid sick days. Go to www.motherwoman.org/political-action to contact Pioneer Valley MomsRising; the national organization can be found at www.momsrising.org.
