Young Democrats of Oklahoma Labor Caucus

11/08/2016

When union members vote, working families win!

11/07/2016

Time to derail the "Trump Train."

Vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8!

11/07/2016

10/12/2016

A Newsweek study found that Trump purchased steel from Chinese manufacturers rather than from U.S. producers, in at least two of his three recent construction projects.

This is NOT how you "Make America Great Again."

10/06/2016

The EITC is an income tax increase for low wage workers. It reduces poverty and supports Oklahoma's children, 24% of whom currently live in poverty. Republican lawmakers passed SB 1604, which ends tax refunds for 62% of the poorest Oklahoma families. A 25% cut in working family benefits is unacceptable. Vote Blue in November for Oklahoma families!

09/30/2016

A new rule released Thursday will assure that workers under federal contracts can get a week of paid sick leave each year.

09/29/2016

“How much more efficient will employees be when they can take concentrated time off to care for their 2-week-old?”

09/22/2016

This incredibly precious baby is the newborn child of Emily Tisch Sussman & Kevin Craw—dear friends of mine whose wedding I officiated last year.

Emily works at Center for American Progress (), a great partner on important issues facing America today. One of the most important issues they work on is paid family leave. The United States is way, way behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to our paid family leave polices, and we must catch up. When parents have to choose between helping their sick kid and paying rent, we all lose: kids, parents and America.

Every one of our industrial peers and major global economic competitors have paid family leave except for us. In fact, out of the 185 countries and territories surveyed in a UN Study, America is one of just 3 countries that does not mandate employers to provide any paid leave for new parents. This is unacceptable.

I recently received a letter from one of my constituents about this issue and I'm sharing parts of it here because it is so moving and captures the daily agony of this issue faced by millions in our nation. Our need to advance common sense paid family leave policies is such a deeply personal issue for so many American families. We must do better.

Dear Senator Booker,

Looking at my beautiful three-month-old son shouldn't break my heart. But in two days, he will spend ten hours at daycare while I return to work, where I will hope I can pump enough to provide him with breastmilk and its many health benefits; where I will pray that no one in my family gets sick until 2017, since my husband and I were both forced to use all of our paid time off for the year as a condition of parental leave; where I will worry that my house will need a new roof or my car will break down, and we will not be able to afford to fix it, since my unpaid leave resulted in a depletion of our savings...
No mother should have to choose between leaving her baby at an impossibly young age and being able to put food on the table. I can tell you from experience that it is devastating; that it is akin to leaving a piece of yourself behind.

09/16/2016

A provision of a highly touted 2013 workers compensation reform law allowed employers to opt out of traditional workers compensation insurance if they provided a separate plan with benefits. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled it was an impermissible special law.

09/08/2016

The old labor motto goes, “From each according to ability, to each according to need,” but hundreds of thousands of people are stuck in jobs that pay according to their disability, and end up with jobs that match neither ability nor need.

09/05/2016

09/02/2016

It is our hope y'all have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend!