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When Will It Pay to Take Family and Medical Leave?

When Will It Pay to Take Family and Medical Leave?
by Helene Jorgensen

What does the United States have in common with the countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea? Not much, other than being the only six countries in the world that do not mandate paid maternity leave. In fact, the Unites States does not provide for paid leave to employees who become sick with a serious illness either, nor to parents to care for a sick child or adult children tending to an ailing parent.

In 2012, 2.5 million private-sector workers did not take needed leave for family and medical reasons because they did not have access to paid leave and therefore could not afford to do so. Employees who do take unpaid leave can experience serious financial hardship as result of their leave, and about one in three workers incur debt as result of taking leave without receiving any pay.

The United States lags far behind other high-income countries in terms of workers’ access to leave, duration of leave and pay during leave. After a decade of political wrangling, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993 to provide job-protected leave for up to 12 weeks. However, the law does not require leave to be paid, and fully 44 percent of all private-sector employees are not even eligible for FMLA leave because they work for a firm with less than 50 employees, have been with their current employer for less than a year, or did not work a sufficient number of hours over the past year.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/21-3

The Russia as "Imperialist" Thesis Is Wrong

The Russia as "Imperialist" Thesis Is Wrong and a Barrier to Solidarity With the Ukrainian and Russian People
Wednesday, 18 June 2014 10:46
By Roger Annis, Truthout | Op-Ed

The violent coming to power of a rightist regime in Kyiv, Ukraine in late February 2014 has opened an exceptionally dangerous political period in Europe. For the first time since World War II, a European government has representatives of fascist parties as ministers. These are the ministers of the armed forces, prosecution service and agriculture, and deputy ministers of national security (police), education and anti-corruption.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24428-the-russia-as-imperialist-thesis-is-wrong-and-a-barrier-to-solidarity-with-the-ukrainian-and-russian-people

Reviving the ‘Successful Surge in Iraq’ Myth

The military offensive by Sunni extremists driving into the heart of Iraq has brought the neocons out of the shadows to blame President Obama, by arguing that they had “won” the war before Obama “lost” it, a deeply engrained false narrative of Official Washington

by Robert Parry

A beloved myth of Official Washington – especially among Republicans, neocons and other supporters of the Iraq War – is the fable of the “successful surge,” how President George W. Bush’s heroic escalation of 30,000 troops in 2007 supposedly “won” that war; it then follows that the current Iraq disaster must be President Barack Obama’s fault.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/06/20-4

Happy Father's Day!