LEARN WorkFamily: A Free Online Resource Network for Unions
Featured Guest Blogger June 1st, 2009
Vibhuti Mehra is the Communications and Development Director for the Labor Project for Working Families. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.
The Labor Project for Working Families has launched a FREE online labor education and resource network – LEARN WorkFamily – to help unions build a family friendly workplace culture. This unique resource network features the nation’s only online database of contract language on work family issues such as family leave, childcare, elder care, flexible work options, adoption, bereavement leave and much more.
Each day millions of working families are being forced to choose between caring for their families and holding on to their jobs. Workers should not have to choose. “In these tough economic times when our working families are making impossible choices between family caregiving and job security, it is more important than ever that unions lead the way to create family friendly workplaces. LEARN WorkFamily is an essential resource for unions in these times,” says Gordon Pavy, Director of Collective Bargaining at the AFL-CIO.
LEARN WorkFamily offers unions a valuable opportunity to exchange information, ideas, strategies and experiences on organizing and bargaining for work family benefits. Unions can use this online network to:
- Search the online database for negotiated work family contract provisions on a wide variety of topics.
- Get tips on bargaining for important work family benefits.
- Learn techniques to build a strategic, progressive and successful work family bargaining agenda.
- Find information on state laws that impact bargaining for work family programs.
- Download resources such as bargaining fact sheets, work family training curriculum for unions, studies on work family issues and more.
LEARN WorkFamily also offers unions a rare opportunity to read and share stories of successes in negotiating for family friendly contract language and programs. For instance, unions can visit the LEARN WorkFamily website to find out how the SEIU Local 1877 won contract provisions to help members participate in their children’s school activities or how the United University Professions won family leave provisions at the State University of New York.
“We created this network because we wanted more than just a contract language database – we wanted people to be inspired by others’ stories and find new ideas for bargaining that they had not known about before,” says Netsy Firestein, Executive Director of the Labor Project for Working Families.
