For Immediate Release
Friday, December 03, 1999
AFSCME Applauds Initiative for Paid Family Leave and Calls for Broader Unemployment Insurance Reform
WASHINGTON —AFSCME applauds the Clinton Administration for seeking ways to expand opportunities for paid family and medical leave. The proposed regulations issued this week, which allow states to change their unemployment insurance laws to provide paid leave to workers caring for newborn or newly adopted children, is an important step toward supporting millions of working families during a critically important time in their lives.
It is disgraceful that the United States is the only industrialized nation that fails to provide paid parental leave with a guaranteed right to return to work. As a leader in the campaign to enact the original Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and a current member of the Campaign for Family Leave Income, AFSCME is committed to making family and medical leave a reality for the millions of families who cannot afford to take unpaid leave.
The Administration's leave proposal also underscores the need for broader and bolder steps to modernize and strengthen our nation's unemployment insurance system. Created over 60 years ago at the height of the Depression, it has since been seriously neglected at all levels of government. Only one-third of unemployed workers actually receive unemployment benefits; wage replacement rates are at the lowest levels since 1969; and chronic under-funding has weakened state unemployment insurance and employment service operations so as to jeopardize their effectiveness if unemployment rises or recession occurs. Women workers, especially those in part-time and low-wage jobs, are especially disadvantaged by the current system.
The United States needs a modern economic security system for all American workers. The economy has changed dramatically since the unemployment insurance system was created. New employment relationships have appeared and the circumstances and needs of America's working families have changed. There are more part-time and contingent workers and more single parent and two-parent working families. Young workers today can expect to change jobs and retool their skills several times during their working careers. AFSCME urges the Administration, the Congress and the states to move now on long overdue reforms of this vital American insurance system to better support workers and their families.
