Listen to these is the moment you stop already 30 action these is the moment he also writes on fighting my data we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories the back to 00. Them almost like most of the brain tumor i had to choose between my job or my mom and of course i was going to choose my mom i had to take my doubt i suppose i was at work at the time i didnt have paid time off when i have a customer yelling at me every day people in the 19 states are being forced to make an impossible choice between going to work or caring for themselves or their loved ones i was working the day that the twins were delivered by a syrian section and up through 2 months after their birth pretty sure i cried the 1st week daycare drop off and it just broke my heart you know every time that they cried for me as i handed them off i had a completely unpaid misread of the live i ended up having to start a go fund me just to make rent and other expenses especially medical expenses this is one of the only countries in the world that doesnt guarantee paid Maternity Leave i hope you dont get sick i hope that i dont get sick and one of the few wealthy countries without paid sick leave the toll that it takes for the whole family is scream about having a wee led to us filing bankruptcy we still struggle postpartum is really rough im signed in to learn seriously now. For millions of americans going through a crisis or a life change with no paid time off can have devastating consequences family pain literally everything to me its really just discouraging and emotionally very difficult for us. It has to change everyone has a breaking point you know. And i dont know what im going to have mine but im afraid that its dangerously sound. Yes. I had 3 miscarriages before i had shepherd one so he was just really special to derek knight. Im sure every parent thinks of but i mean. He was very wanted we thought we were going to get to keep him and watch him grow up. Alison shepherd would have been 5 this year her daughter as many as 3 and a half. And presleys 9. In 2015 when shepherd was 2 and a half months old allie got a call from his daycare asking her to rush back shepherd had stopped breathing. At day she ended up swaddling shepherd putting him in another kids car seat and then put the car seat on the floor another room and shut the door and she didnt check on him for over 2 hours. And she found him blue. Doctors advise against putting babies to sleep in car seats saying it increases the risk of sids or sudden infant death syndrome and then i met them at the hospital where i watched them continue to perform c. P. R. And. If i would print stemmed so. This is pretty much like every mothers nightmare. Its just a gamble on a risk that i dont think that any family should have to take. I think our baby should be older and stronger. Allie had only been back at work for a week how much time do you think families should have 6 months that would be my utopia. 90 percent of infant deaths happen by 6 months. Moms and dads share that 6 months or go back and forth or some flexibility from 6 months. d of his a cool therapist she says she didnt have paid Maternity Leave through her job. She thought shed get 12 weeks off unpaid through the federal law known as at m. L. A. Or the family and medical leave act but she didnt even qualify for that because your office had fewer than 50 employees. Got 11 weeks of unpaid leave but she says its only because her boss advocated for her hes the only reason. Because all i qualified was for. A leave of absence so i could have just had 30 days with shepard versus almost 11 weeks. To make the most of her time off even decided to have shepherd early. Because i was like im done im done like using up my leave basically i wanted my newborn with me at my house i wanted to get to know and bond with my baby i dont want to be pregnant any further into that time where i had agreed that i would be gone. Thats just pretty crazy calculus to sit there while youre pregnant and make that decision every every family in america makes that decision every single one. This is. Her. Letter o o. O. Practice that. Alys husband derek is a school teacher. He planned to spend his summer off taking care of baby shepherd we only needed a few weeks of care to get to summer and shepherd never made it. 7 a diet april 6th we only knew theyd get to the end of may and then he would have been home with derek and derek would file a gotten some time alone with this little boy. He never got that. That next week or so was just like a border. Press he was for at the time as hard as going to the hospital was the hard part was having to go. Pick press up and tell him that his brother had died. As the hardest thing ive ever had to do. Is look at a 4 year old in the face and tell him that his brothers not coming home. Do you think if he had more time off shepard would still be alive if theres a few things that i know that if my child had been with me about day id still have 3 kids i know it. Theres literally not a family in the United States that this policy would it touch. Were behind the entire world on this issue behind and supporting our families 1st or just terribly awfully embarrassingly behind we are. Family medical leave as always had the support of a majority of americans every part of the country from every walk of life from both Political Parties it took 8 years and 2 vetoes to make this legislation the law the way in 1903 was the last time the us tried to pass a comprehensive federal policy for workers to take time off at all to care for a loved one or themselves that was almost 30 years ago now millions of our people will no longer have to choose between their jobs and their families. All of those millions of americans are still having to make this choice. About 40 percent of workers dont qualify for f. M. L. A. And because its unpaid even people who do qualify often cant afford to take it so for us i just want to say well thank you for being in february these workers went to congress to lobby for more comprehensive paid leave law on average others 5000. 00 a year to leave or pulling from my pension my future to care for my mother. I dont use my leave to get my mammograms i dont use my leave to go to and just only use my leave to care for my mother or my baby wasnt going to be afforded the most important time of Brain Development because in order to keep a roof over our heads i had to work there was no choice and that was the 1st time i ever felt im lucky to live in the United States of america a civilized country would never do that to its own people. United states has fallen behind in terms of the kinds of Public Policies that are addressed the Economic Needs of families today both men and women are in the workforce people get sick other countries have understood this theyve understood that with regard to pay equity paid sick days United States is behind the curve. We need to just see the moment representative rosa de lauro has been working on this issue for the last 40 years. I introduced a family act shes now cosponsoring a democratic led bill called the family act which would offer up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for most workers it creates an independent as selfsustaining National Insurance fund by having employees and employers pitching together with payroll contributions of 0. 02 for every 10. 00 in wages it has equivalent to less than 2. 00. Per week for a typical worker its workable and you know why its workable california new York New Jersey 8 states plus the district of columbia move in this direction and it is working. So why do you think we still dont have federal paid family leave when we 1st had family medical leave the view was that this was not Sustainable Business community couldnt do this it would put them out of business that was hard. Today recognized as something that is important its growing and no one will not have been because of it and thats the argument we get today on page family. Polls show that most americans across the political spectrum support the idea of paid family and medical leave but Many Republican lawmakers dont think the government should mandated companies are competing for workers and voluntarily expanding benefits for their employees because of the tax cuts not because of a mandate from the federal government i mean that sounds wonderful but we all know at the end of the day theres nothing free in it at some point theres a lot of costs associated with this theres 2. 00 main points of contention one is whos covered what what range of conditions are covered and the other is how do you pay for it and i would say a 3rd emerging issue is what is the proper role of the private sector versus government and public a public program. But the unseen costs of not having paid leave are numerous. Whether its measured and womens reduced wages or a loss in Retirement Savings and income over time whether were thinking about increased Health Care Costs when people arent able to take the time they need to get care and recover. There are a big cost of doing nothing. I want. Everybody she gave you no matter education level a good job. That everybody should be least 6 months of paid leave. When clay gave birth to her baby royal she says she didnt have a new paid Maternity Leave to her part time job. At 1st she planned to take 3 months of unpaid leave to be with her baby. Ones very home and i wanted to be able to specify i would. Like you dont know not to say to people arent you going to put it. Off to a friend. On the woodlawn. And they want to. Face that she wasnt thinking about it. At that point hey were the high school i need for more so they are. Taking 6 months of unpaid leave took a financial toll on the she had to go on government assistance is very stressful or believe at the mercy of somebody is stressful when i should be able to do everything for marking you. May go over should i say. Theres people. Issues on housing. Be on housing you have to work you have to have a job you can eat food at home. Is 6 months of leave on usual based on what youve seen of the women that you deal with. Even if its all for the record. According to one estimate a quarter of women in the u. S. Go back to work within 2 weeks of giving birth as a breastfeeding counsellor at a Public Hospital he says she hears about this all the time what are you seeing in the mothers whove had to give birth and then go right back to work story of survival mode. Postpartum depression if. They dont have. Birth. Their birth. Ideas is there but you just pray. Things got harder for leah when she became a single parent. A week before she was supposed to go back to work the girls father died unexpectedly. Me in their day were attached it to him he was my everything. Were in the. Right. Year you couldnt i got used to is now starting to be meeting. With a guy thats going to start. Calling me i know. Theres a hole or trying to win the room are lies. We split everything. 5050 and one of our plans was for him to start work in ny. A. Word. To work in but now. Thats not even. Sure. 2 about 70 percent of black women are the sole breadwinners in their families and we know that 60 percent of women are code bread winners in their families so when these families experience a shock on either side or on both sides simultaneously if they have unpaid leave they cannot afford to take care of their family. Nobody should have to work when the boss lottery in order to benefit from something that helps them and their families attain economic security. About 75 percent of people take leave to care for their own health needs or for another loved one whereas only 21 percent take it for paid parental leave. So we want a policy that covers all the familys needs. When i thought about half of all a just as a kind of lay person it just meant more like perturb nitty or Maternity Leave. Weve just been very fortunate that it had never been an issue until joe got sick. In june 2015 when jackie son joe was almost 3 she got a call from his daycare this is what they saw day care so you can see is all sweaty on the outside and its just a very distinct line right down his face and almost looks like a sunburn on right half the side of his face right after a trip to the emergency room joe underwent a series of scans this was after his bone marrow biopsy he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma a rare Childhood Cancer that develops in the nerve cells its crazy to look at him down think of that and just remember. Id wake up in the mornings and there are just i have a brief 2nd or i didnt know i dont remember and then it was just an elephant on my chest and i just remember thinking how am i going to function today how my going to take care of my 3 kids. Who this is really key its. Got thousands. This is what it is cancer cancer is going to get her. Only. Pay a. Week or kill or hospital. Theyre very. Jackies a schoolteacher she took 3 months of unpaid leave through f m l a to be with her son. Thats what radiation looks like when she realized how serious her sons condition was jackie told her boss she couldnt go back to work any time since his last radiation treatment we just had no choice i had no choice there was no way that i was going to leave him in the hospital alone. A few months after taking on paid leave jackie lost her job. This line just killed me thank you for your efforts on behalf of the children of the end of our Public Schools and best wishes to you and all your future endeavors if my kid is so in the hospital and youre leaving me without a job without benefits and thats the letter i get and so when you got that letter that day what was going through your mind i did not know what i was going to do i had to figure out how i was going to go back to work and get some benefits josie reached out to the end of a Public School district for a statement they told us jackies case had been resolved and it would release any additional information. Jackie interviewed for jobs while joe was still in the hospital. 12 weeks is so better than 0 weeks i had to go back to work immediately after joel was done with treatment thats another place where that paid leave would have been and what happened so helpful was just taken care of myself. My kid almost died i have images of him burned into my brain of him just attached to 8 different i. V. Poles and. But how can you expect someone to leave that experience and not be affected and not need time to heal. Its been nearly 4 years since joe was in treatment. But he still has to go to the hospital for checkups every 3 to 4 months. Or a blast romas just its miki and it hides places and it can show up years out of treatment. So its really scary to think about you know. This could be over might not be. Hello. Hi gary oh. No thats ok jackie got a call from joes oncologist about a recent scan. Ok. They found a spot on his liver. So. It just put you right back in that place and brought me right back to june of 2015 thankfully what they think it is its just this lesion that kids get but hes going to have to go in for another scan. Another specialized m. R. I. That i have to take another day off of work for i just took 2 days off last week for his scans. But as this is just something thats ongoing it is never going to go away for us and. We just feel like were really alone and. I saw children in the hospital with cancer whose parents couldnt be there. And they were just left in charge the nurses because the parents had to be at work. And. It just haunts me. Minus 9. We should have to choose between what our instincts our brains our hearts are telling us and between possibly losing our jobs nobody should have to make decisions like. We often talk a good game about caring for our families and loving our neighbors and caring for our communities and yet our Public Policies dont match up to that we really valued the contributions that people make whether in their workplace or their home or in their community we would have adopted them medical evil and go. Its so hard for me to even wrap my head around that you would actually somehow we would have this policy that would provide paid leave so that you could actually afford to offer that support to that aging Family Member or the kid with cancer like. What a different world with love and what value we would place on every persons life. A community decimated by can say fights for the truth to lose through me has cancer or knows of someone that lives here that has cancer lines exposes houstons cancer cluster these are the 110 properties that have got were going to mission and they looked at a visible pole but they can move to it just safe and give them down no one else has your suit i mean time to put lines on aljazeera. This powerful social network is sculpting a global Cyber Society and regulation is playing catch up but as scandals begin to unfold they will witness is that we should not be in this position. They want as much extra content as they can get. To gauge how ethics weigh against profits and how the rules are being written. And signed facebook on aljazeera. Im Richelle Carey and oha these are the top stories on aljazeera the number of krona virus cases in latin america has surged brazil has overtaken russia to become the 2nd worst affected country after the United States confirmed infections are now above 330000. 00 and the death toll was more than 21000. 00 and its thought the actual total could be even higher infections in brazil are not expected to peak until next month thousands of protesters are on the streets of hong kong to demonstrate against chinas for those National Security laws these are live pictures right now so this bill