Valuing Families: We?re Fighting AND We?re Winning

by Nancy Biagini, CWA Rep. Human Rights Department

I had the great privilege, as an Advisory Board member of the Labor Project of Working Families (LPWF), of attending the Family Values @ Work’s 10^th Anniversary and Annual Meeting in New York.  If you ever wondered what this organization has done for families, take a moment first to look at their history of wins in the past decade.  Their book can be downloaded here: FV@W: Celebrating 10 Years of Wins (PDF).  I’d strongly recommend it for CWA members to get a visual on how far we’ve come…and how far we still need to go.

We became aware of this organization primarily through the work we’ve done with LPWF – a union-centric group that has helped CWA members in several states achieve paid sick days and leave time off.  Last year, LPWF joined operations with Family Values @ Work to expand their efforts.  Their approach is one we share – that building a movement is key to affecting change.  Having LPWF together with FV@W increases our capacity to support our middle class quality of life.

You can get more information about FV@W and LPWF on their websites.

The organizations that came together in New York involved LPWF union partners, women’s groups, civil rights groups, faith groups, constituency groups, legal aid societies, progressive organizations, and numerous state and federal legislators.  Joining us for our 10^th Anniversary “birthday party” was an early and life long supporter, Gloria Steinham, who was awarded for her efforts.

We talked for two days about what was happening on a local and state level.  Panel presenters gave an overview of municipalities that had taken a leadership role in paid sick days and paid family leaves.  It is the general consensus that until we can succeed in the passage of federal laws to support working families, it is necessary to build at the local and state levels.  In this manner, we can build the necessary political will of federal legislators to do likewise. 

We listened to progressive speakers on how we could ensure that Election 2014 would be different from Election 2010, in terms of electing those supportive of family values instead of focusing on Wall Street values. We networked with organizations that shared union values.  Even with participating small business associations, one thing was clear in the largely female audience: women’s economic justice is positively tied to unionization.

Most important, we heard from every day practitioners about “lessons from the field,” what works and what doesn’t work.  Immediately afterwards, we made plans in breakout sessions on ways we could achieve success back home.

It was an encouraging couple of days at the Ford Foundation, our gracious hosts.  The ideas that were shared will be likewise shared with our National Human Rights Committees (Women’s and Civil Rights & Equity) for deployment in the field.

We’ve done it before.  We can certainly do it again.  Stay tuned and join our CWA Human Rights Database so you can be on the front lines of supporting family values.