The New Jersey Senate and Assembly were in session on Thursday afternoon following committee meetings earlier in the day. Here is a summary of the day’s legislative action:

Statewide Earned Sick Leave (S-785/A-4103). The New Jersey State AFL-CIO and its coalition partner, Working Families United for New Jersey (WFUNJ), have been leading the campaign for statewide earned sick leave legislation that would benefit all workers.

The bill allows workers to earn sick time for hours worked, and is a common-sense measure that is good for workers, good for public health and good for business. After all, who wants a sick employee preparing our food in a restaurant, handing us change in a store or fearing being fired for staying home to care for a sick child?

The Senate vote was 22 to 17. To see how your senator voted, CLICK HERE.

A similar bill is making its way through the Assembly.

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO and its coalition partner, Working Families United for New Jersey, Inc. (WFUNJ), continue to lead the campaign for a statewide earned sick leave law as the bill comes to the Senate floor on Thursday, December 17, 2015, thanks to the leadership of Senate President Steve Sweeney, the measure’s prime sponsor.

The legislation (S-785/A-2354) is scheduled to be voted on by the full Senate during a session that begins at 2 p.m. This common-sense bill allows workers to earn sick time for hours worked so they can afford to stay home when they, or a loved one, is ill.

Committees in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly met Thursday to consider several bills of concern to working families. Here is a rundown of the day’s legislative action:

Safe Staffing for Nurses (A-647/S-1183). Legislation establishing staffing levels for nurses cleared the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee by a vote of 8-4. It was the bill’s first public hearing. Voting in favor were: Assembly members Herb Conaway (D-7, Dan Benson (D-14), Tim Eustace (D-38, Jerry Green (D-22), Angelica Jimenez (D-32), Patricia Egan Jones (D-5) and Nancy Pinkin (D-18). Voting in opposition were: Mary Pat Angelini (R-11), Amy Handlin (R-13), Nancy Munoz (R-21) and Erik Peterson (R-23).

By Laurel Brennan

The American woman’s struggle for equal pay is not new. As far back as the Civil War, working women have been fighting to be paid on the same scale as men. As Labor Secretary Lewis Schwellenbach pointed out when he tried unsuccessfully to get an equal pay amendment passed in 1947, “There is no sex difference in the food she buys or the rent she pays, there should be none in her pay envelope.”

As one of the few groups advocating for the interests of working people, labor unions have led the way for gains. In 1961, labor activist Esther Peterson convinced President Kennedy to address gender pay inequality. Over the next two years, she gathered data, built coalitions and overcame fierce opposition in a successful campaign to enact a national Equal Pay Act. The following year, the labor-backed Civil Rights Act of 1964 further strengthened laws for gender equality. And, in 2009, unions pressed Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the time frame for women to file equal-pay lawsuits when business owners intentionally shortchanged them.

New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech issued the following statement in response to the governor’s disgraceful comments scapegoating union workers for his own failures:

“It’s no secret that Chris Christie has been ‘calling it in’ for close to a year now, relegating the governorship to basically a $175,000 per year no-show job. For that reason, the Legislature is going directly to the citizens to advance common-sense solutions to the state’s most urgent problems. That’s leadership, and the governor should take note.”

President Charles Wowkanech issued the following statement on the introduction of legislation to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot requiring the state to fully fund pensions:

“The New Jersey State AFL-CIO strongly supports legislation to place a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot requiring the state to make its full pension payments. We applaud Senate President Steve Sweeney’s ongoing efforts to restore New Jersey’s pension system to fiscal health on behalf of this state’s 650,000 active and retired public-sector workers."

New Jersey representatives in Congress who have been fighting to reinstate critical funding for New Jersey Transit successfully restored $50 million a year to our state’s federal mass transit funding.

U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker along with Reps. Albio Sires and Frank Pallone refused to support a federal transportation bill if it included a provision to strip the money from NJ Transit. These public officials stood up for New Jersey’s working families by helping secure much-needed funding for infrastructure projects in our state.

The Friedrichs U.S. Supreme Court case is an attack on the fundamental right of workers to form unions and exercise their collective voice on the job. To understand why this case has been brought forth and its implications on all workers, please take a moment to watch this video featuring our union sister Jennifer Higgins from AFT Local 1904 at Montclair University.

As the video reveals, this case is being funded by the same forces that have been attacking American working people for decades. The Center for Individual Rights (CIR), which brought this case forth, is a front group designed to advance conservative legal action. CIR is funded by wealthy interests like the Koch Brothers, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the F.M. Kirby Foundation based in New Jersey.