KPLU Local News
(2010-07-29)
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Shop steward Tasha West-Baker says she and other workers often report to work sick because they can't afford not to.
Photo courtesy of UFCW Local 21
The union says it's a public health issue: one in four workers in the Puget Sound region have reported coming to work sick in the past year because they did not have access to paid sick days. That means their germs are inevitably spread to their customers.
"They come to work sick, they have to. They don't have a choice."
That's Tasha West-Baker, who works at Safeway in Seattle's Rainer Valley. She's been with the company for seven years, so she's earned some of the best benefits available under the union contract. But she says the sick pay provided by her employer isn't enough for most employees to actually use it - because more often than not, your first day out isn't covered. And thousands of clerks are making less than two hundred dollars a week.
"And then to say, oh I'm sick, and I'm gonna take 8 hours of that from you is impossible. You can't even live off that in Seattle right now."
The employers say they are already exceptional for providing sick pay at all in a state that doesn't require it and a sector in which it's not common. They also say many of their employees get these benefits even as part-timers, which is rare. The union is backing a campaign to require all employers to provide a minimum of 7 days paid sick leave under federal law. That proposal is before Congress.
For More information:
Negotiation Updates from United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 21
MomsRising.org: Even Supermoms Can't Fight All Germs: Personal and Political Stories for Paid Sick Days
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