NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)— President Barack Obama and his team promoted a package of reforms to strengthen the rights of working families at an all-day conference Monday, The Associated Press reported June 23.
Obama used Twitter and the hashtag #FamiliesSucceed and #WHSocial to spread the message on social media about the need for paid sick leave, paid family leave and wage equity for women.
“I promise you: You have a president who will take action to support working families.” —President Obama #FamiliesSucceed
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 23, 2014
“Anything that makes life harder for women, makes life harder for families.” —President Obama #FamiliesSucceed
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 23, 2014
“Many women can’t even get a paid day off to give birth. You’d think that would be a pretty low bar.” —President Obama #FamiliesSucceed
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 23, 2014
Women and families’ rights groups along with advocates for social justice used Twitter to emphasize the importance of improving working conditions for pregnant women and working mothers.
If women earned equal pay for equal work, our economy could grow, boosting GDP by 2.9% or $450 billion. #familiessucceed
— EMILY’s List (@emilyslist) June 23, 2014
The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee working mothers paid maternity leave. #familiessucceed
— EMILY’s List (@emilyslist) June 23, 2014
More flexibility in the work place leads to higher levels of productivity!! #whsocial #FamiliesSucceed
— Courtney Teague (@IamCourtneyLuv) June 23, 2014
A centerpiece of the day was Obama’s support for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would require employers to accommodate those who are pregnant or face other similar limitations, a guarantee widespread among other industrialized nations.
New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the author of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, applauded Obama’s support for the bill. “It is unconscionable that, nearly 35 years after passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, women are still being forced to leave jobs,” Nadler said in a press statement. The bill has 128 co-sponsors in the United States House of Representatives, Nadler said, and Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) has introduced a version in the Senate based on Nadler’s bill, which was first introduced on May 8, 2012.
But not everyone is applauding today. Hundreds of low-wage federal contract workers for 50 companies doing business at federal sites – like the National Zoo, Pentagon and Union Station – walked off their jobs Monday, saying they were led by an army of working women dressed like Rosie the Riveter.
In a press statement they said this was the eight strike by low-wage federal contract workers in the past year.
Against that backdrop, a report says that the federal government is the largest funder of low-wage jobs for working women and people of color, and that President Obama should take executive action to help lift them into the middle class, RH Reality Check reported.
The report, Underwriting Good Jobs, details how 8 million workers and their families, or more than 20 million Americans overall, depend on low-wage jobs that are significantly funded by taxpayer dollars. A disproportionate number of those low-wage employees are women -71 percent – and minorities – 44 percent.
Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner, the Republican from Ohio, used Twitter on June 23 to register partisan opposition to the White House forum.
Because of President Obama’s policies, there are fewer #WorkingFamilies. More #jobs are the answer. http://t.co/E0HsBoCsHa
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) June 23, 2014
The President’s policies are a blow for working families http://t.co/LG2OwnLwk8 #WHsocial #FamiliesSucceed
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) June 23, 2014
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