Any chance that the Democratic Party would not return to it’s old ways now that it has majority control of Congress again seems pretty much shot to hell:
With the Democratic Congress expected to move quickly to raise the minimum wage, many Democrats, women?s organizations and liberal groups are gearing up for a fight on another workplace issue: paid sick days.
Supporters point to studies showing that nearly half of American workers do not receive paid sick days. But many Republicans and businesses complain that such legislation would impose another mandate on companies, driving up their costs.
Advocates of paid sick leave cite workers like Naomi Nakamura, who lost a week?s pay when her 103-degree fever forced her to miss five days from her job at a video rental store in San Francisco.
Ms. Nakamura said, ?Some employees didn?t want to lose their pay, so they showed up for work even though they had strep throat, and they just spread it to other people.?
Last month, San Francisco voters approved a measure requiring all employers to provide paid sick days, making it the first jurisdiction in the nation with such a requirement. The vote was 61 percent to 39 percent.
Now supporters are planning a big push for sick day legislation not just in Congress, but in Maine, Maryland, Montana and several other states. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a bill last year to require companies with at least 15 employees to provide seven paid sick days a year, but that bill languished in the Republican-led Congress.
Now that Democrats have won control of Congress, Mr. Kennedy, the incoming chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is more optimistic.
Of course he is.
