A Poetic Look at Need for Paid Sick Leave

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/02/19/a-poetic-look-at-need-for-paid-sick-leave/

A Poetic Look at Need for Paid Sick Leave

by Mike Hall, Feb 19, 2007

Last week, we reported on Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Healthy Families Act that would require most employers to provide workers with seven days of paid sick leave per year to take care of themselves or a family member.

Today, almost half of all workers have no paid sick leave, and low-income workers are in even more dire straits–76 percent have no paid sick leave.

The story prompted AFL-CIO Now reader Dave Hurlburt of Pacifica, Calif., to submit the following poem: “One Sick Kin from Being Fired.”

Hurlburt, a member of Communications Workers of America Local 9410 and retired after 30 years as a communications technician for SBC, has long been an advocate for family friendly workplace policies, especially paid sick leave. He was a vocal advocate for San Francisco’s recent successful ballot measure that requires employers to provide paid sick leave.

Even though little more than half of today’s workers have paid sick leave, Hurlburt remembers when things were worse. In the early 1970s when he was working for Pacific Bell Telephone, his young son developed a 105-degree temperature, and Hurlburt rushed him to the hospital in the predawn hours and missed that day’s work.

I got written up for it and put on notice. My boss told me I should have been at work instead of taking my son to the hospital. He said, “That’s what you got a wife for.”

A lot of things have changed since the 1970’s. More workers have some paid sick leave, and women have earned more respect for their roles at work and in he family. But in both cases, much more needs to be done.

Here’s Dave’s poem:

One Sick Kin from Being Fired

It is hard for a family to make both ends meet,
Both of us working so we are not on the street.
Minimum wage workers need every single dime;
They also need some emergency kin care time.

We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick child away from being fired.

Why can’t we use sick leave to care for our kin?
When the Boss fires us for that, it is just a sin.
Not any time off with pay for short-time family care;
When the roll is called up yonder, will these managers be there?

We work hard and at night and we’re so tired.
Just one sick spouse away from being fired.

COMPLETE poem at link.