ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702240024
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF.
SOURCE: The Chicago Tribune
THE AFL-CIO PLANS a new front in the campaign for union members: Making the lives of working women easier by getting employers to provide more services and flexibility.
Each morning, hundreds of women arrive for work at the headquarters of the biotechnology firm Amgen without some of the worries that will occupy the minds of millions of other women around the country.
These women won't have to arrange for someone to look after their preschool children, or rush to drop off the dry cleaning, or try to find time to grab something for the family supper at the end of a busy day. That's because Amgen provides a wide range of services intended to make it easier for women with children to continue their careers.
The Amgen headquarters in the rolling hills of Ventura County just north of Los Angeles contains a full-scale day-care center, a dry cleaner and even a place where prepared dinners can be grabbed on the way home.
But millions of other women balance responsibilities to jobs and families each day without the kind of support provided by Amgen and a few other companies. The less well-paid the women and the more menial their jobs, the more difficult the problems become.
The AFL-CIO plans to campaign for more of these services as part of its drive to increase membership.
Union leaders, meeting in Los Angeles this week, said they plan to send a million questionnaires to women around the country to identify the problems of working women and the ways unions can help. The union organization plans to use the information to lobby for legislation that will address those needs.
``We think that women have a common set of concerns regardless of what region they come from, or what their income level,'' said Karen Nussbaum, head of the AFL-CIO's new Working Women's Department. ``But they have few opportunities to voice their problems and there is nobody behind them.
``We are going to survey all working women, not just union members,'' she added. ``We think we can give them their voice and put the power of unions behind them.''
Unions are being urged to increase the portion of their budgets that they spend on organizing from the present level of about 2 percent to 30 percent.
Although union membership has been in decline for years, there are signs that the tide may be turning. Recent recruitment gains by unions among service workers, primarily women and minorities, has encouraged labor organizers.
Nussbaum said that, for the first time, women are joining unions in greater numbers than men. Sixty percent of unionized public sector workers are women, she said. Nearly 70,000 women working in the food and commercial services industry are union members. In the fast-growing casino industry, 75 percent of new union members are female.
Overall, unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO have 5.5 million female members, Nussbaum noted.
The 26 questions in the survey include queries about the desirability of flexible working hours, child care programs, wage levels and employer attitudes toward working women and their problems.
Nussbaum said one likely result from the campaign will be a drive to expand provisions of the existing Family and Medical Leave Act to guarantee employees greater flexibility with work schedules.
``My medical insurance program does not have doctor hours on Saturdays,'' said Nussbaum. ``I have the flexibility to take my children to the doctor during the week. But what about the grocery store worker, or the nurse who does not have that kind of flexibility?''
Nussbaum, a Chicago native and a longtime advocate of working women, was the founder in 1993 of 9to5, a group of women office workers that ultimately grew to a 15,000-member organization.
She said she did not expect employers to be immediately receptive to the idea of providing greater benefits and flexibility to workers. She also said she was worried about the way in which employers might take advantage of the present drive.
Supported by some Republicans in Congress, employers have suggested that workers who need greater flexibility with their schedules could take time off instead of pay for overtime. Organized labor opposes the idea, suggesting that employers will use the situation to squeeze more work out of employees for less money.
``If the employer gets to say when the comp time can be taken, you still don't have the flexibility you need,'' said Nussbaum.
She also said that there was a vast difference in the benefits large corporations offered their higher-level staff members and those provided to lower-paid employees.
``I heard recently about a big company that provided a kennel service for [the dogs of] their executives who had to travel,'' she said. ``But what about working women with children? We have to get our priorities straight here.''
LENGTH: Medium: 89 linesby CNB