M artin L uther K ing J r .
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INION
January 13. 2010
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Martin
Cleaning
Service
Carpet &
Upholstery Cleaning
Residential &
Commercial Services
Minimum Service CHG
$45.00
Carpet Cleaning
2 Cleaning Areas or
more $30.00 Each Area
Pre-Spray Traffic Areas
(Includes: / small Hallway)
1 Cleaning Area (only)
$40.00
(Includes Pre-Spray Traffic
Area • Hallway Extra)
Stairs (12-16 stairs)
$25.00 (With Other
Services)
Heavily Soiled Area:
Additional $10.00
ADDITIONAL
SERVICES
• Area & Oriental
Rug Clettning
• Auto/Boat/RV
Cleaning
• Deodorizing & Pet
Odor Treatment
• Spot & Stain
Removal Service
• Scotchguard
Protection
UPHOLSTERY
CLEANING
T I
z
Sofa
$79.00
Loveseat
$59.00
Sectional
$109-$139
Chair or Recliner
$35 - $49
Throw Pillows
$5.00
(With Other Services)
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Coming Together for Sick Time
Job benefit is
urgently needed
M artha B urk
Good riddance to
2009: the recession,
the Wall Street bail
outs, the main street
misery, and most of
all the so -called
h e a lth -c a re "d e
bate." For better or
w orse, we'd best
turn our attention to the one factor
driving up health-care costs in this
country that hasn't even been men-
tioned-the lack of paid sick leave.
While Congress was laboring to
insure the insurance companies from
loss of profits, almost 60,000 cases
of swine flu were confirmed in the
United States. The World Health
Organization has declared the glo
bal situation a "public health emer
gency of international concern," and
says the epidemic is not over.
Early on, the U.S. government
increased distribution of antiviral
drugs and ramped up production of
the H 1N 1 vaccine, and the Centers
for Disease Control recommended
that sick people stay home from
work or school to avoid infecting
others.
by
Right.
Everyone, including members of
Congress, probably would say that's
good advice. But there's one little
problem. According to the In
stitute for Women's Policy Re
search in Washington, fewer
than half of U.S. workers get
paid sick days. What's worse,
only a third of those who get
the benefit are able to take their
sick days tocare for ill children.
Workers who come into di
rect contact with the public,
infect other kids.
At the height of the flu outbreak,
Mexico closed its schools-the first
step that any public health service
recommends at the onset of an epi
demic.
According to Dr. Jody Heymann,
at the McGill Institute for Health
and Social Policy, Mexico could do
this because the country combines
paid sick leave with child-care
through its social insurance sys
tem. At least 139 other countries
provide some paid sick leave to
Four out o f five Americans
think paid sick days should he a
basic labor standard.
such as restaurant servers, childcare
workers, and hotel employees, are
among the least likely to have paid
sick days. Many are low-wage work
ers who not only lose wages if they
stay home-they risk losing their jobs.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist
to figure out that workers who lack
paid sick time are more likely to go to
work with a communicable illness,
and parents who cannot stay home
with a sick child are more likely to
send them to school or day care to
workers as a matter of national law.
Though some large companies
do it anyway, no U.S. laws-national
or state-require that workers have
paid sick days, meaning workers are
at the mercy of corporate bureau
crats. So much for "the best health
care system in the world."
Though the swine flu threat is
lessening, winter isn't over, and we
still have many cases of seasonal flu
ahead of us. The monetary cost to
employers and families runs to the
millions of dollars.
It's good that the Obama admin
istration held press conferences and
declared a public health emergency
at the height of the crisis, but a far
more serious-and continuing-emer
gency is the lack of sick leave. That
propagates the virus as surely as
food service workers sneezing into
your food because they're too poor
or too scared for their jobs to stay
home.
The Healthy Families Act, which
requires that paid sick time be pro
vided by employers with 15 or more
employees, is likely to be back on
the table in Congress sometime in
the next couple of months.
And unlike the division over
health insurance, the country is
together on this one. Four out of
five Am ericans think paid sick
days should be a basic labor stan
dard.
Pundits say this is a time politi
cally to leave the dogfights of 2009
behind and go for some big ideas.
Clearly, this is one idea whose time
is long past due.
Martha Burk is a political psy
chologist, women's issues expert,
and director o f the Corporate Ac
countability Project fo r the Na
tional Council o f Women's Organi
zations.