Emmie has alerted me to the fact that the Family Medical Leave Act is up for review and is in danger of getting reduced. Which is scary and stupid on the part of corporations and the government.
I have used the FMLA twice for my own kidney surgeries and my father was able to also take it twice to help me out when I was recovering from said surgeries. Many disabled people are able to stay employed because of this leave--albeit unpaid. Many parents are able to stay employed while supporting their children or parents when they are seriously ill. It is completely inhumane that the government want to support corporations in weakening this act. It is also not in anyone's best interest. If folks are not able to stay employed when serious illness strikes, they may find themselves in a freefall that devestates their lives and wreaks havoc on the rest of us as well. More people become impoverished and are not able to pay taxes or pay for medical care, in addition to losing their employer sponsored health insurance. This puts a bigger burden on all the rest of us while giving corporations a break. We need to decide who should have the power here and where our priorities lie.
One of the main ways people use the FMLA is for maternity leave. Emmie talks more about this, but sometimes, especially when a pregnancy doesn't go as smoothly as planned, it is the only thing women have to safeguard their jobs. I don't know if most American women realize that in almost every other country in the world, women get up to several months of paid maternity leave. And then usually after that, many get reduced hours and a child care stipend. This is just what is done by most of the world to ensure that their workers are treated at least somewhat humanely. American women don't realize that many families in other countries look at the ways we are treated here and just think it is savage in its cruelty.
I lost my job before I was pregnant and then did some part-time contractual work up until after I was pregnant for the same employer and then lost that as well. Sometimes, I think that losing my job was the absolute best thing that ever happened to me in regards to my desire to be a parent. If I had been working while pregnant, I would have had to go on leave five weeks before my children were born because I was put on bedrest and had a surgery. Then after a C-section and two newborn preemies, I would have had to return to work when they were just six weeks old. At six weeks my kids were a bit over 5 pounds and were struggling to eat 20mg feedings every two and a half hours round the clock. Not to mention that I had just lost a chunk of sight and had another impending surgery. The stress, instability, and threat to mine and my kids' health insurance and income makes it sad, but true that we are much safer now having lost my job and gone on disability and part time work. I know most people in my situation don't even have disability to count on. But many times, disabled people do not qualify for their company's short or long term disability benefit due to pre-existing conditions (I didn't qualify with the disabling conditions that forced me out of a job). FMLA is all we have. It is all most U.S. mothers have.
Jessica commented on Emmie's site:
It's really time the US starts to invest some of the vast amounts of money they are spending on security on its own people, and not killing others.
I'd really like to repeatedly tattoo that sentence all over G.W. (et al)'s face.
You can comment in support of strengthening the FMLA here. But hurry, you have until Feb. 16th.
I pounded this out in an angry late-night hurry, hope it all makes sense.
thank you thank you thank you.
will spread the word!
Posted by: artsweet | February 09, 2007 at 11:54 AM
You're right, the amount of leave new parents get from work is ridiculously low. I am trying (as yet, unsuccessfully) to convince my company to offer adoption benefits so that we adoptive parents get at least a little paid time off... Even the mothers who give birth only get one fully paid week and five partially paid weeks.
Posted by: erinberry | February 15, 2007 at 05:18 PM