(thanks to David Flanders)
New York City’s paid sick leave bill is backed by grassroots labor activists, a veto-proof majority of the city council, the New York Times editorial board, and even some celebrities. However, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) is blocking the measure from coming up for a vote, claiming it would have a negative effect on small businesses.
There are few dilemmas worse than having to decide whether to go to work sick or risk losing your job if you stay home. Most of us take sick days for granted; at least I used to while I still worked for The Man. Even the healthiest among us have days when we’re simply too ill to work. Sick days provide protection for the worker, for those he or she works with, and represents a recognition of the fact that humans aren’t machines. People fall ill, sometimes so much so that they’re incapable of doing anything, much less working. Yet millions of Americans work in jobs that provide no sick days, meaning the being too ill to work can represent a choice between sucking it up and going to work or not being paid…or worse, losing one’s job.
Over a million New Yorkers currently face such a choice when they fall ill. The Paid Sick Days act would grant New Yorkers labor protection on par with 163 other countries. No one’s talking about giving New York workers special rights; it’s about treating them with a basic level of dignity and humanity instead of viewing them merely as units of production. That Quinn is blocking implementation of the law is reprehensible. That she’s a Democrat and going against everything the Democratic Party stands for is even worse.
This is one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party and quite likely the next Mayor of New York? She should be ashamed of herself. It seems that Quinn is just another self-absorbed, hypocrite masquerading as a populist and pushing a Liberal agenda while quietly working to gain the support of Wall Street and the business community. Evidently populism doesn’t bring in the campaign donations the way sucking up to the wealthy elite does, eh?
