For Immediate Release
Monday, June 27, 2005
Statement by AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee on Proposed Changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act
The Bush Administration has a track record of dismantling workers' rights, and now they are going after the Family and Medical Leave Act, trying to rollback many of the protections that it provides to America's workers by changing the definition of a serious health condition and restricting the use of intermittent leave.
Working Americans need the Department of Labor and Congress to provide more solutions as they struggle to balance work and family. The best way to do that is to ensure the security of the Family and Medical Leave Act, not try to dismantle it.
Since the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act just twelve years ago, more than 50 million Americans have taken job-protected leave to bond with a new baby, care for a seriously ill family member, or recuperate from their own serious illness. And fewer people have had to choose between a job and their family when medical crises strike or babies are born.
