Important weeks in the legislative session.  Committees were to release bills.  State House News tells us that 900 bills were given “extensions” which means the committees have not been willing to support, reject, or send them to “study” (effectively killing them for the year).

Paid Sick Leave is in the House Ways and Means Committee. Contact all members of that committee and the House Leadership, Speaker Robert DeLeo  ( 617-722-2500) and House Ways and Means Chairman, Charles Murphy of Burlington of Winthrop (617-722-2990);  Barbara L’Italian of Andover of Boston – Vice Chair (617-722-2380);  Stephen Kulik of Worthington of Franklin – Assistant Vice-Chair   (617-722-2380).

Urge 15 of your friends to call, as well.   Telephone numbers for all on State House Website

Scaccia of Boston            Fox of Boston                 Koczera of New Bedford
Canavan of Brockton    Fagan of Taunton          Quinn of Dartmouth
Garry of Dracut              Creedon of Brockton    Rodrigues of Westport
Balser of Newton           Timilty of Milton            Kane of Holyoke

Donelan of Orange        Rush of Boston       Driscoll of Braintree  

Guyer of Dalton             Sciortino of Medford     Sannicandro of Ashland

Welch of West Springfield     Speranzo of Pittsfield   Rice of Gardner

Conroy of Wayland       deMacedo of Plymouth   Hargraves of Groton

Perry of Sandwich         Polito of Shrewsbury         Smola of Palmer

Webster of Pembroke

For a script for telephone calls, see our Paid Sick Leave page.

Savings Bank Life Insurance

For 20 years, the SBLI company has sold insurance in the Commonwealth with a provision in the statutes prohibiting discriminatory provisions in rate setting by gender.  Now, the company wants to be able to establish different rates for men and women.  Please contact your senator.  The company has been profitable for many years without discriminating.  Whatever small savings women might achieve by discriminatory rate setting, they will lose more in the long run in the insurance field.  Just last year, Massachusetts was finally able to end discrimination in annuities.  Now SBLI wants to turn the clock back.

Contact your senator immediately.  Urge they not take this discriminatory action.

Transgender Civil Rights Bill 1728

Once again the Massachusetts legislature is dragging its heels on civil rights legislation.   A bill to add transgender identity to the state’s civil rights statutes is still pending, notwithstanding that a majority of the legislators have indicated their support.

Write the leadership.  Urge that this bill be released from the Judiciary Committee for floor debate and a vote.

The “paid sick days” bill has now been sent to House Ways and Means. Let your legislator know this is a very important piece of legislation.   For added information on this issue look on this website at JALSA Pages: JALSA Issues: “Paid Sick Days for all Workers”.

JALSA has signed onto a letter to the Congress endorsing a bill that would strike the one-year filing deadline for asylum applications. Currently the Immigration and Nationality Act requires asylum requests to be filed within one year. Often refugees need more time to make sure other family members are away from danger.

Harvard Medical School Professor Emeritus Rashi Fein spoke on Friday, April 16 discussing Health Care Reform and what next steps do we take to improve health care.

250-300 people crowed the Great Hall of the State House to hear Lilly Ledbetter and Vickie Reggie Kennedy speak on Paid Sick Leave.   Governor Deval Patrick spoke to the crowd providing his first public support for the legislation.  The program was moderated by State AFL-CIO President Bob Haynes.  Speakers included employers who provided strong  support for paid sick leave.

Rabbi Barbara Penzner visited CLSA on Friday, April 9 to discuss the firing of the Hyatt housekeepers.  CLSA will consider what options are available for increasing public visibility and pressure on the Hyatt to reconsider the treatment of these workers.

A panel of three judges, including Judge Michael Boudin (presiding), Justice David Souter (formerly of the Supreme Court) and Judge Jeffrey Howard engaged with Harvey Silverglate, representing the original plaintiffs who were appealing the district court finding, and Bill Porter of the Attorney General’s office with David Guberman, representing the Commonwealth.  JALSA joined in an amicus brief with Armenian groups and the Irish Immigration Center arguing that the Department of Education had the right to determine what materials should be included in a Curriculum Guide established to carry out the legislative intent to teach about genocide in the schools.

When the initial legislation had been considered, our organizational leadership had urged the legislature to include a broad number of examples of genocide in the proposed curriculum so that students might study history of particular interest to their community.  As a result, the legislation had indicated that the study might include materials about the Armenian Genocide, the European Holocaust, the Cambodian Killing Fields, the Middle Passage of the African Slave Trade, and the Irish Potato Famine.  Turkish representatives wanted materials in the curriculum that argued that the Armenian experience during WWI was not an example of genocide but the result of the conflict.  The DOE had decided that denial materials should not be part of the Curriculum Guide.  The core question raised by the plaintiffs was whether the removal of the denial materials from the Curriculum Guide, possibly in response to political pressure, was a denial of constitutional rights.

An audio recording of the court proceedings will be available at http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/

Click “Court Calendar,” and follow the links for the RSS feed of oral arguments.

Case name:  Griswold v. Driscoll.    Case should be decided by June.

Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development gave a thumbs up to the pending Paid Sick Day bill.  Now, quick progress is needed to move it through both houses by the end of the legislative term.  Calls to House Leadership about the importance of this bill would be very useful.

Enthusiastic audiences heard Nigel Savage at Temple Beth Zion and Cong. Dorshei Tzedek this weekend.  Members of Moishe/Kavod House, JALSA, Temple Shalom of Newton, TBZ, and Dorshei came together to listen to the HAZON leader and help build the Jewish Food Movement in Boston.   Immediate local steps include participation in CSA arrangements  (Community Supported Agriculture), support of the Nutrition Bill (H 4459) at the State Legislature (which includes provisions to encourage school purchase of local products), continued encouragement of workshops at different synagogues to encourage participation, and efforts to encourage local supermarkets to consider exploitation of workers as they determine where to purchase food.   The Nutrition Bill has been sent to Senate Ways and Means and JALSA members should talk to their senators to encourage swift movement of this legislation