Transgender Bill PASSED!!!    THANK YOU EVERYONE

A great victory.  Massachusetts now protects gender identity in employment and education.

We still need to work on public accommodation.  Next round!

Update on CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILL

Criminal Justice Bill will wait until next session.  Since different versions were passed by the House and Senate, bill will need to wait for January.  JALSA is pleased that these versions have not been enacted into law. These are complex statutes with many provisions of concern.

These bills would result in three strikes sentences in MA mandating life without parole.   H3811 is even harsher than the notorious California Three Strikes law, which permits parole after 25 years.

Significant changes to the Massachusetts wiretap statute, enhanced criminal liability in DNA collection, expansion of the habitual offender law, mandatory post-release supervision and new standards of whom shall be eligible for parole and when were maintained.

Areas of our conversations with legislators:

1) This Bill has been proposed in an extremely hurried way with no research on what these measures will cost.

2) Research has shown that 3 strikes bills do not reduce crime.

3) Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Arkansas, New Jersey, New York and Michigan have all taken a thoughtful look at costs and crime rates without locking up more people or enacting tougher new laws; all have saved money and reduced crime by providing more substance abuse treatment both in the community and in prison. MA spends only 2.4% of its budget on programming and by implementing effective parole practices that help parolees become tax paying, lawful citizens.

Thank you for signing on to the letter to Secretary Napolitano regarding Alabama’s anti-immigrant law, HB 56. Over 350 organizations signed on demanding an end to unjust immigration enforcement policies and programs in Alabama. Yesterday, we mailed the letter to Secretary Napolitano and we plan to request a meeting with her to further press for our asks. Again, we thank you for signing on and we hope you will continue to distribute the letter widely.

To download a final copy of the letter, click here.

To read the press release about the letter, click here.

Thank you for your support.

Tong Lee
Rights Working Group
202-296-2300 x 123
tlee@rightsworkinggroup.org
www.rightsworkinggroup.org

Andrew Fischer, as President of JALSA, writes in the Brookline Tab, deploring the arguments used in the debate over the Pledge of Allegiance in the Brookline Schools.

Here is the link to Contagion: Not Just a Movie, a powerful look at how the common sense policy of paid sick days can prevent a real-life contagion. Five worker activists share their stories of having to go to work sick because they can’t afford to stay home or aren’t allowed to take off.

Here in Massachusetts, almost 1 million workers do not have a single paid sick day.

We all have a stake in paid sick days. KNOW THE FACTS:

·        More than 44 million workers do not have paid sick days – almost 1 million of whom are Massachusetts workers.

·        Workers earning low-wages are the least likely to have paid sick days. Only 19 percent of low-wage workers have access to paid sick days.

·        Many workers with a significant interaction with the public do not have paid sick days. This includes three in four food service workers, three in five personal health care workers and three in four child care workers.

·        1 in 6 workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking time off work to care for a personal or family illness.

ECONOMIC AND ….……FULL EQUALITY                  HEALTH AND                     PROTECTING SOCIAL  JUSTICE…. AND CIVIL RIGHTS     ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE     CIVIL LIBERTIES

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Paid sick policy could save Mass. $22m

Click here for Hearing Update and Media Coverage3

Updated: Thursday, 14 Jul 2011, 8:54 PM EDT

• Christine Lee, 22News State House Correspondent

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – In the spring, state Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne Goldstein said paid sick leave is a workers’ “basic right.” Now lawmakers are responding with legislation that could make it law.

The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing Thursday for a pair of bills that legally require businesses in Massachusetts to provide paid sick leave to their employees.

“The workers who cannot afford to take a sick day, those are the ones who don’t have it, the ones who are working for minimum wage,” Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville), a lead sponsor of the bill.

“It’s about healthcare for all, it’s about social justice, equitable justice,” said Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield), who serves as House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

In a research study conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), results show that the Commonwealth could save $22.7 million dollars in emergency room costs with a paid sick leave policy.

Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton), another lead sponsor of the bill, adds that her legislation will encourage a healthier work environment.

“I know I encourage people to stay out of my office if they’re ill because we don’t want to infect the entire office,” said Rep. Khan.

But small business owners insist that financially speaking, they’re already at the end of their rope. They’re struggling with mandatory health insurance, the recession and other employee obligations they can’t afford.

“This paid sick leave bill is one more high cost and small businesses have nothing left to give to this,” said William Vernon, the Massachusetts director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Small business advocates add that the government shouldn’t interfere with private business and “one-size” paid sick leave legislation, “doesn’t fit all”.

“A lot of small employers have part-time employees, seasonal employees,” said Jon Hurst, the president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “A lot of those employees are not looking for benefits. They’re looking for higher pay per hour.

Opponents of the legislation express concern that sick benefits could be abused on a nice sunny day in Cape Cod, but supporters say it’s the workers who are being abused when they must choose between working while sick or taking a pay cut.

Mandatory paid sick laws are active in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Washington D.C.