Congress: Strickland weak on parental sick leave

In 2014, a coalition of community groups fought in Tacoma for legislation to mandate all workers receive earned sick leave. For months, we wrote letters to the City Council and mayor, made phone calls and wrote emails engaging thousands of Tacomans in a grassroots effort.

I testified at several council meetings for them to take action, even though my employer provided me with paid leave.

Later that year, Mayor Marilyn Strickland introduced what was at the time the weakest municipal paid sick leave proposal in the country. It would have provided only three days a year for working moms to take paid time off to care for kids when they got sick. And it assumed the worker wouldn’t need to take time off for her own flu.

The proposal was a giveaway to business at the expense of working people. Thankfully Washington voters in 2016 passed better legislation.

Now Strickland is running for Congress and wants to take credit for this achievement. Those of us who worked on this issue remember the real story, despite what her glossy mailers say.

This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Congress: Strickland weak on parental sick leave."