And, the first order of business of Maine’s new legislative leadership may be to eliminate the Labor Committee – the committee that serves the needs of women workers.

The Labor Committee has existed in the Maine Legislature continuously since 1887 (yes, that’s right – over 120 years)!

Members of the Labor Committee make decisions about unemployment, equal pay, enforcement of wages, family and medical leave, overtime laws, sick leave, minimum wage, and hundreds of other issues.

The Labor Committee is the only committee devoted to the rights, benefits, and protections of working people. It’s the one place designed to ensure workers’ voices are heard.

Eliminating the Labor Committee is bad policy, it’s bad precedent, and, frankly, it’s insulting to the hundreds of thousands of Maine people who get up and go to work every morning.

And, the new leadership is trying to do this as quickly as possible with very little debate.

We need you to take action & quickly. Here’s what you can do (talking points are below):

1. Call the Senate Republican Office (287.1505) and the House Republican Office (287.1440) to leave a message for Senate and House Republican leadership to ask them to oppose eliminating the Labor Committee.

2. Please call your own State Representative and State Senator to ask them to oppose eliminating the Labor Committee.

When you call, you can say something like:

Hi, my name is______________. I’m calling from ______, and I’m calling today to ask ________ to oppose eliminating the Labor Committee. The Labor Committee is a key committee for issues of importance to working people; it has existed continuously since 1887, and I see no reason to eliminate it.

Thank you for taking this very important action today,

Charlotte Warren
Associate Director

PS: Workers cant wait! Spread the word:

Click here to tweet about it: http://clicktotweet.com/EA8nt.

Or, make this your Facebook status for the day: Make sure workers have a voice! Tell leadership not to eliminate the Labor Committee.

You can also add this as a link, using our archive page here: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6024/blastContent.jsp

Maine Women’s Lobby Responds to Vote to Defeat Paycheck Fairness Act

Statement of Sarah Standiford, Executive Director, Maine Women’s Lobby

“The failure of the U.S. Senate to proceed to an up-or-down vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act has jeopardized the economic standing of Maine’s women, and the families that they support. The Maine Women’s Lobby is disappointed that Senator Snowe and Senator Collins refused to support the cloture motion on Paycheck Fairness.

“The principles of fairness and equity were set back today. Unfortunately, so was the Nation’s economic recovery. Recent U.S. Census data demonstrates that the gender wage gap is widening in Maine. Women in Maine are now earning just 77 cents to a man’s dollar. The bill would have provided grants to improve women’s ability to negotiate for equal pay and deterred discrimination by strengthening penalties for equal pay violations (bringing them on par with other civil rights violations). It was designed also to provide greater levels of wage transparency, allowing employees to discover instances of employer discrimination.

“Even though 84% of Americans support these new tools to promote equal pay, unfortunately today, the U.S. Senate failed to stand up for the needs of working women.

“The recovery of the American middle class begins and ends with well-paying jobs, but that cannot happen if women are bringing home less and less each year. Women are increasingly the sole breadwinners for their families. That means equal pay is not just a matter of fairness—but also the key to a family’s ability to make ends meet.

“The question before Maine women is now: How long will we have to wait for fair pay?”

The Maine Women’s Lobby is a non-partisan, non-profit, membership organization working since 1978 to increase opportunities for women and girls through advocacy and legislative action. www.mainewomen.org

# # #

The U.S. Senate is back in session, and the clock is ticking for fair pay. With three weeks remaining to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, we need our Senators to act – which means they need to hear from us today!

Call your Senator at 1-877-667-6650 and ask them to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act this session!

The Senate must make this bill a priority: the Paycheck Fairness Act would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and by barring retaliation against workers who disclose their wages to co-workers. Women in Maine are making just 79 cents to a man’s dollar. Throughout the U.S., that figure is just 77 cents!

Learn more here.

Word from Portia Wu , Vice President at the National Partnership for Women and Families, from  inside the event was that Lilly Ledbetter was star of the show.  No surprise there! Lilly headlined an event here in March with her story about fighting pay discrimination at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Here’s hoping she continues to pound the pavement – I mean the halls of the U.S. Senate office buildings. Meantime we’re going to do all we can in Maine to get this bill passed once and for all. As the V.P. says: “Step Up, Man!”

Right now, the wage gap is at about 77 cents to the dollar – which is to say that for every full dollar a male earns a women earns, on average, 77 cents. It is important to recognize that the wage gap is even wider for women of color. African American women on average only earned 68.9 percent for every dollar earned by a white male per week, and Hispanic/Latina women only 60.2 cents. Check out this IWPR report to learn more about the wage gap.

We were lucky to have Lilly Ledbetter in Maine last week (brought by the Maine Women’s Policy Center and The WAGE Project) who gave an inspiring speech about her fight for pay equity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Support the “Paycheck Fairness Act”

The U.S. Senate must act to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182), a bill that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act and provide the government with additional tools to enhance enforcement of equal pay laws.

More than 45 years ago, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, requiring employers to provide equal pay to women and men for equal work. Despite the law, the wage gap persists. Today, women in Maine make, on average, just 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would help eliminate this wage gap by:

• Prohibiting employer retaliation. The Paycheck Fairness Act prohibits employers from punishing employees who share salary information.
• Improving compensation for victims by bringing Equal Pay Act remedies in line with those available to plaintiffs in other discrimination claims.
• Creating a negotiation training program for women and girls.
• Providing assistance to all businesses and recognizing employers for excellence.
• Closing loopholes by requiring employers to defend gender pay disparities by showing that differences exist for legitimate job-related reasons.
• Improving data collection by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Paycheck Fairness Act requires them to survey already-available salary data.
• Bolstering enforcement and data collection of gender-based data.

This bill passed the House in January 2009 but has not yet received a vote in the Senate. Urge your Senators to support this important legislation!

Senator Olympia Snowe

154 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20501

202-224-5344

Senator Susan Collins

413 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

202-224-2523

Representative Blodgett meeting Lilly!

Lilly sharing her story

Some of us in a photo with Lilly after her inspiring speech!

Stay tuned for more on Lilly’s visit later this week.

So, I started asking around … and here are some reflections from the women of the Maine Women’s Lobby:

Director of Public Policy, Laura Harper, and some of her lobbyists cohorts.

Here’s what Laura had to say:

I feel certain that my experiences lobbying for marriage equality will never be matched. Every day, I came out to legislators. I shared with them my commitment for my partner, Lauren, our engagement, and the fears and discrimination I have faced during our partnership because we can’t get married.

It was a rush. It was exhausting. It was scary. It was joyful.

When the Governor signed the bill into law, I was waiting with other advocates outside his office. When a member of his staff discreetly stuck her head around the door and whispered, “He signed it,” I knew I was a part of Maine history. I knew it would be a moment I would never forget, similar to when President Obama was elected or when we finally passed the anti-discrimination law in Maine.

I will return to that moment again and again. There will always be a part of me that will never age, there will always be a young woman standing there in her little suit with her sweaty armpits and rumpled tissue thinking, “Oh my God, we’ve actually won.”

Here’s Sarah, our Executive Director:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s Kim Simmons, one of our board members:

The highlight of the 124th Legislative session, for me, was the passage of the Marriage Equality Bill!  I am impressed with the cooperation that emerged in the 124th Legislature and with the fact that our leadership is female. Nevertheless, I was disappointed not to see more radical and progressive action taken to redistribute wealth in our state, to protect the poor, and to address the absence of paid sick leave which creates both the potential for a public health crisis and family emergencies on daily basis. It seems to me that we have a unique moment to truly push for tax policy that is rooted in social justice priorities and reflects the interests of most Maine people, and I hope that more progressive and innovative thinking will emerge in the second session of the 124th!

Charlotte at the State House

And, here’s what I think:

So, when I think back on the 124th session of the Maine Legislature, my first thought is, “phew … it’s over.” And don’t get me wrong, I love the excitement of the session. I love the exhilaration of the wins – and the opportunity of the losses. And, I guess in a lot of ways I would describe this past session as a roller-coaster ride – we were up, we were down, we were recessed, we were tabled … Oh yeah, I was paying attention to the play-by-play afforded to us by Laura, her Blackberry, and Twitter … and I was addicted! Check out our newsletter archive to review the roller-coaster ride.

So, enough about us. What do you think? Add your reflections today.

PS: Yes, “phew” is actually a word. It’s in the dictionary and everything.

Thanks everyone,

Charlotte

Anyway, I’m pretty psyched about a recent editorial by the Bangor Daily News called “Equal Pay Helps All.”

“The fact that women in the same job make only 78 percent of what their male counterparts equal is often considered a problem for women to deal with. This is shortsighted. With increasing numbers of women becoming primary breadwinners and growing numbers of single-parent households headed by women, ensuring female workers are fairly paid should matter to everyone.”

The article discusses how the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill making its way through the United States Congress is good for all workers, businesses, and for our economy.

What do you think?