WHEREAS:
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) definition of “immediate family” only includes a worker’s spouse, parent and child; and

WHEREAS:
84 percent of working men and women say it is important to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (see: A Job and A Life, Labor Project for Working Families, 2005); and

WHEREAS: 
Workers should be allowed leave to care for individuals outside the traditional nuclear family.  In today’s society there are both traditional and nontraditional families and the responsibilities placed on the worker are the same in both cases.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME International and its state councils urge Congress to enact legislation that expands the Family and Medical Leave Act definition of “immediate family” to include grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, step-parents, parents-in-laws and domestic partners.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY:Carol Stahlke, President and Delegate
AFSCME Local 189, Council 75
C.J. Mann, President and Delegate
AFSCME Local 3267, Council 75
Oregon