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Families Don Superhero Capes to Support Paid Leave in DC, Deliver Hundreds of Petitions to DC Council

Families from around the DC-metro area are “suiting up” in superhero gear to support the DC Universal Paid Leave Act of 2015, which would provide 16 weeks of paid family and medical leave for almost anyone who lives or works in the District of Columbia. If the Act passes, Washington, DC will have the most robust paid leave plan in the nation, which would allow workers to take the time they need to care for a newly adopted child, a newborn, a personal illness, or an ailing family member.

MomsRising members and their children will deliver hundreds of petition signatures, along with personal stories that illustrate how the legislation would help families, to the DC Council. They will ask council members to use their “legislative superpowers” to make paid leave a reality for DC-area families and will deliver superhero playing cards because without paid leave, the deck is stacked against working families.

WHAT: Petition Delivery in Support of DC Universal Paid Leave Act

WHEN: 10:30am–12:30pm, Thursday, November 19th

WHERE: Washington, DC Council, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Fourth Floor, Washington, DC 20004

Right now, only 13% of working people in the United States have access to paid family leave via their employers, and one in four working mothers nationwide must return to work just two weeks after giving birth due to lack of access to paid family and medical leave. Other new moms are forced to cobble together vacation and earned sick days to recover from childbirth or to welcome a new child into their lives. Paid leave programs implemented in California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey have demonstrated that working families, businesses, and local economies all benefit when paid leave laws are passed. Passing paid family and medical leave for DC’s workers and residents would have the same positive impact on local families and businesses.

Media are welcome to attend the deliveries and interview MomsRising staff and members. Photo and video opportunities with the families will be available, as well as interviews with MomsRising members who would benefit from the bill. For more information, contact Michele Setteducato, michele@fitzgibbonmedia.com.

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MomsRising.org is an online and on-the-ground grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to achieve economic security for all families in the United States.MomsRising is working for paid family leave, flexible work options, affordable childcare, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes so many others.  MomsRising also advocates for better childhood nutrition, health care for all, toxic-free environments, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families. In 2013, Forbes.com named MomsRising’s web site as one of the Top 100 Websites For Women for the fourth year in a row and Working Mother magazine included MomsRising on its “Best of the Net” list.  MomsRising also maintains a Spanish language website:  MamásConPoder.org.