End Poverty? Ask Those Who Know

When the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked leaders and expertsabout ways to reduce poverty, they left out those who know it best: people like me, who have lived it.

Everyone the paper asked agreed that employment and education are keys to ending poverty.

As the mother of a child with special needs, I know I have to get to the school when someone calls to say there's a problem. Yet when I do, on more than one occasion, I've had an employer who said, "If you leave to deal with your child, don't come back to this job."

The doctor and the child care provider tell me to keep a young child who's sick at home. But on more than one occasion, I've had an employer who said, "If you stay home with that child, don't come back to this job."

We need to add jobs, but we also need to make sure that people can keep their jobs. One in six workers in this country has lost a job because he or she took time to care for a personal or family illness. If you add in those who were disciplined or threatened with loss of a job for that reason, the number is one in four.

Employment can be a way out of poverty, but work can't get people out of poverty if it doesn't last. And it can't last if it jeopardizes your health or the health of your kids.

If anyone had asked teachers or school nurses who work with kids living in poverty, they'd tell you that kids can't learn if they have to go to school sick or if they have to stay home to take care of an ill younger sibling. But no one asked teachers or school nurses how to end poverty.

When the voters of Milwaukee were given a chance to decide whether to implement a policy in which workers can earn paid sick days, nearly 70% of them said, "yes." But Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature stole the voters' right to have a say in what happens in their area and blocked the paid sick day ordinance.

Paid sick days are a common-sense, cost-effective step in ending poverty. Those who are serious about reducing poverty should join in demanding the Legislature reverse its decision.

Here are other steps essential to fighting poverty:

 Many people in my community live in poverty despite the fact that they are employed. The problem is not that they lack skills. Taking care of someone's father with Alzheimer's or someone's precious infant, preparing and serving food, helping those with chronic illness or injury live with dignity - all of these and many other jobs take skill. Yet these skills are undervalued. We need to raise the minimum wage and make sure that all skills are valued properly.

 A key to making jobs family-supporting is having a voice at work through a union. Instead of attacking unions and vilifying public employees, we need to protect collective bargaining and make it easier for others to organize unions.

 Too many people can find only part-time work, which pays less per hour and often offers no benefits. Even those who work fewer hours are full time every hour they're on the job, and they deserve the same rates of compensation.

Paid sick days and fair treatment on the job aren't the only answers to ending poverty, but they have to be part of any plan to end economic devastation in our city.

Torrie Moffett is an apprentice organizer with the Milwaukee chapter of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.