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:
Mary Harris, more widely known as Mother Jones, was an Irish American schoolteacher and labor organizer who shed light on the plight of child workers in Pennsylvania. At the time children as young as 12 years old were allowed to work.
Is your local prepared for the upcoming Janus decision?
Women's History Month has been recognized in the United States since 1987 but this past Thursday, March 8, we celebrated International Women's Day.
To the workers of all trades who toil in the worst of weather to keep our city up and running as well as those whose work can’t take a snow day, we thank you.
If we hope to maintain a strong membership with ownership of their union after Janus, we have to change our local union practices and cultures. How do we keep our membership high and shift our focus to constant member engagement and development?
The people hired today will shape our movement’s future. We will explore the importance of New Hire orientations in fostering close and on-going relationships with members.
Anti-labor organizations throughout the country are behind the Janus case, and are raising money to persuade our members to drop their Union membership. We will look at their history, practices and messaging and make a plan to inoculate our members and community against the attacks.
We know we have to talk about Janus with our members. But what do we say and how do we communicate it? We will discuss both the fundamentals of crafting a powerful message about Janus, and the variety of tools—from printed materials to emails to social media.
How do we have effective conversations and measure our effectiveness? We will drill down into the fundamentals of one-on-one and member-to-member conversations. We will discuss various ways and techniques to map your membership, and to track and analyze the data.