My Blog

When she told me I thought I didn’t hear her correctly.

"What? Really?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

My friend who works for the city of Chicago is expecting a child and will receive no paid maternity leave.  If she worked for Cook County, if she worked for the State she would receive paid leave, but in Chicago, the most expensive place in the entire state and county to live, there is no paid leave. Oh, and you have to live in the City to work for the City.

There is currently no plan to offer paid leave, although a resolution to offer an additional six weeks of unpaid leave is underway.

What?

I find this shocking. I understand that the City’s budget is tight. Still, I don’t understand how it could have a maternity policy that is so archaic.

Here’s what I want you to do. If you are a resident of the city of Chicago copy and paste the following text. Email it to your alderman and Mayor Daley. The Mayor doesn’t have a public personal email so you have to send it through the city’s web site. If you don’t live in Chicago, I put a line in there for you. BCC me on it: sharnamarcus@hotmail.com

I know I send you stuff like this a lot. But I really believe, as cheesy as this might sound, we have the ability to protest and to change wrongs in the system. Please forward this blog to your friends. 

To the honorable Mayor Daley,

During your tenure as mayor you have done much to beautify the city, attract population from fleeing to the suburbs, and attempted to fix the public schools. However, one item you have grossly neglected are the men and women who work for the City who receive no paid maternity leave. This is unacceptable to the people who live in your great city and to those of us who work and visit Chicago regularly.

The current policy is simply anti-child and anti-family.

Please propose and pass for 2007 budget a family leave policy that will introduce paid leave. Each year add a paid week until the city of Chicago offers six weeks paid leave by the fiscal year 2013.

Sincerely,

Name