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April 26, 2012
The Case for Earned Sick Time
As business owners, women want to offer good benefits, but they are often at an unfair disadvantage without a minimum standard in place. When they do decide to offer fair wages and benefits, they run the risk of being undercut by the competition. The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce strongly and enthusiastically endorses the earned sick time legislation because it supports small businesses, benefits workers and encourages an equitable workplace for women across the Commonwealth.
April, 25, 2012
Dunkin' Donuts Protest Calls for Sick Days
NEW BEDFORD — A dozen protesters clad in bright orange T-shirts marched and chanted in front of Dunkin' Donuts on Kempton Street today, calling for that corporation and others to provide workers with earned sick time.
April 2, 2012
Mass. Needs Sick Leave Mandate
For the nearly 1 million Massachusetts workers and their families, proper health care is largely out of reach. That's because they don't have basic, paid sick days - and it means higher costs for them, their employers and our communities.

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Bus driver talks germs in 'Contagion' spin-off

Bus driver talks germs in ‘Contagion’ spin-off

By Darren Garnick  |   Wednesday, September 14, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Business & Markets

As a 30-year veteran behind the wheel of a school bus, Terry Brinig has fearlessly stared down her share of stir-crazy kids eager to challenge authority. But what really scares her is what she cannot see.

Everyday after her multiple runs of elementary, middle and high school students, Brinig wipes down her handrails with anti-bacterial wipes. She figures that driving eight busloads of 71 passengers makes her the incubator for at least 568 sets of germs.

“I’m the common denominator,” she says. “In the winter, when all the windows are up and there’s no ventilation, the heat is blowing microbes all over the place.”

Brinig, who works for a Boston-area bus company, stars in a new labor activist video released on the Web this week, “Contagion: Not Just a Movie.” Feeding off the momentum of the Steven Soderbergh film that debuted on top of the box office last weekend, the video highlights the struggles of 44 million American workers who do not receive any paid sick time.

Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow, the Hollywood movie focuses on a global flu pandemic threatening to wipe out the entire human population. The Web video, produced by the nonprofit Family Values at Work, features an introduction by Boston Public Health Commission director Barbara Ferrer.

“The best thing to do when you’re ill is to stay home,” she says in the clip. “In our country, everyone has the right to stay home when they’re sick; they just don’t have the right to get paid, or to keep their job. By supporting paid sick days, we can prevent a real life ‘Contagion.’ ”

According to Ferrer, an estimated 7 million people were infected by co-workers during the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1, or swine flu virus.

Brinig, who won’t publicly name her employer out of fear of retribution, claims that her job security has been threatened when she has taken unpaid time off to care for her teenage son, who suffers from a serious intestinal disorder.

This summer, Connecticut passed the first statewide paid sick time law and the Seattle City Council approved similar legislation this week, making it the third city after San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to do so.

In Massachusetts, three previous efforts to implement the “Paid Sick Days Act” have died at the State House, but the Legislature is revisiting the issue this session with House Bill 1398 and Senate Bill 930.

Noting the backing of Gov. Deval Patrick, Brinig says she’s optimistic that Massachusetts lawmakers will support her quest this time.

“Paid sick time should be about basic human decency. It should be common sense,” she says. “I believe it will happen because I have to believe it will happen.”

Watch “Contagion: Not Just a Movie” at www.FamilyValuesAtWork.org.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1365686