Work and Family

Although the “traditional” family—a father who works outside the home and financially supports the children and a mother whose work is keeping the house and raising the children—has been disappearing for more than a generation, our workplaces and government policies have not kept pace with America’s new reality.

Most children are growing up in homes with both parents working or with single parents. One-third of workers don’t have access to paid sick leave, and only 42 percent have paid personal leave. What’s the impact on public health when working people can’t afford to take sick days during a flu epidemic? Who takes care of a sick child? Who’s home to fix dinner and help with homework? Who can dedicate time to a sick elderly parent?

The recession and jobless recovery have complicated life further for working families, when having to leave work for a family emergency could lead to long-term unemployment.

More about this issue:

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

A group of staffers at the public advocate’s office are one step closer to negotiating their first contract as a union, bringing organized labor to one of the last remaining nooks in city government.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

"Over the last ten years, local construction firms have increasingly profited from the flow of people leaving prison. The most outrageous firms are literally called 'Body Shops'.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

The hotel industry is urging NY State to designate its staffers as crucial front-line workers so they can be vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 400 members of the Hotel Trades Council died after getting infected with COVID-19, with many employees contracting the virus on the job.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

Actors' Equity Association, representing actors and stage managers in live theatre, is still seeing record levels of unemployment as theatre remains closed due to the pandemic.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

CJNY's Education Fund hosted its first 2021 Long Island Climate Change and Offshore Wind Training in coordination with Cornell's Worker Institute.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

This week at AFM Local 802, the union celebrates that the first New York "pop-up" concerts with Jon Batiste and Stay Human were covered under a union contract, and that the AFL-CIO featured Local 802 member

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

The labor and arts communities of New York mourn the loss of Mark Plesent, co-artistic director of the Working Theater.

Feb 26, 2021 | News Story

Roughly a hundred organizers have been calling workers from Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse in recent weeks, making the case for why they should unionize.

Feb 19, 2021 | News Story

"Nobody feels safe in the subway. Not the riders and certainly not the workers. Daily ridership was down 3.5 million last year. But more people were robbed, raped and murdered in the system than in 2019," writes Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano in a NY Daily News Op-Ed.