Senate hearing on Paid Sick Leave

The Senate hearing I covered this week dealt with a bill that was introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) [JFKs brother], the Chairman of the Seante Health, Education, and Labor Committee. Known as the Healthy Families Act, it would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide seven paid sick days to care for their own and their families' medical needs. It was asserted that this bill would benefit some 66 million working Americans as 46 million would gain access to paid sick days; 19 million would gain paid sick days for leave for doctors' visits and family care; and 1 million Americans would gain additional paid sick days.
One of the strongest points they brought up was that the issue here is one of public health, because if people go to work sick or send their sick children to school, they infect their colleagues and classmates. An intreresting statistic was that 86% of hotel and food industry workers, 55% of workers in the retail industry, 29% of health care and social assistance workers do not have paid sick days. For Kennedy's full statement go here: http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=f0479fd4-0618-452e-aba7-ce7f1e348d3d

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) a ranking member on the Committee opposed the legislation, arguing that a more practical solution would be legislation for a small business health plan that would allow small businesses to buy into health plan coverage at better rates. His main beef with the bill was that it was too binding, yet too open-ended. Binding because it forced companies to offer 56 hours paid leave no matter what, he called it "an administrative and logistical nightmare for many employers". He said it was too open-ended because it wasn't definitive and allowed for too many loopholes. His point was that they should focus on getting the uninsured insured because, what good is a day off if you cant get the proper treatment. For Enzi's full statement, go here: http://enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=NewsRoom.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=bc030891-802a-23ad-40c6-c72e5b1d4c1e&Region_id=&Issue_id=

It seemed to me that Enzi was trying to save the business owners money and put money in the insurance companies' pockets, I think people should get 7 days paid off, whether or not they actually go to the doctor (one of Enzi's points was that as is, the bill would allow for abuse [ie employees not really sick]) is their business.

As I sat through this, I began to reflect on how this country was built on slave labor and continues to run on cheap labor. In the mid 20th century worker's rights gorups began to arise, along with Unions. The establishment saw these groups as a threat. This is a capitalist society where profits and property are supreme. The workers and the citizenry are an afterthought, simply beasts of burden. their well-being is secondary. This is the crux of the matter; the existing realities and the prospective changes all hinge on this paradigm. What needs to happen is that the welfare of the people should become the primary concern.

I brought this concern to the attention of Senator Bernie Sanders Independent and self-proclaimed Socialist from Vermont as well as Roger King (who while speaking said that at the heart of this issue is the need for media reform) one of the panelists at the hearing. You can access the audio here:http://dc.indymedia.org/media/all/display/32711