State preemption is one of the legal doctrines that Community Rights lawmaking challenges. Time after time citizen majorities have formed in communities to enact and enforce laws that make life easier for the many instead of the few. And more often than not state and federal levels of government step in to deny citizens their inalienable Right to Local Community Self-Government. One example of this is a piece of legislation passed in the State Legislature back in 2011 prohibiting municipalities from enacting local sick-leave laws. The news story below illustrates how state preemption is used to stifle the efforts of working people acting lawfully and democratically to make life easier in the workplace. — Curt Hubatch, Community Rights US Media Team Member
How about Paid Sick Leave, Now?
The Legislature has bills creating a paid sick-leave insurance pool and overturning a sick-leave ban forced on municipalities
This article by Melanie Conklin was published in the Wisconsin Examiner on March 16, 2020.
Wanda Lavender, 37, is a manager at a Popeye’s restaurant in Milwaukee. She’s a mother, a grandmother and the breadwinner for her family, making $12 an hour working 40 – 60 hours per week.
“Yesterday my family had to go into self-quarantine,” she says. My son’s teacher tested positive for coronavirus. My son ran a temperature. Now I can’t go into work for about a good two weeks.”
She’s worried about her coworkers, who she describes as “my family,” fearing they also may have to miss work. “As a manager I do have some vacation time. I worry about them … if they have no way to pay their landlords, no way to pay their bills, no way to feed their families.”
She has been a staunch community advocate for paid sick leave and a leader in the Fight for $15 movement to raise the minimum wage.
(To read the rest of this news story at the Wisconsin Examiner please click HERE.)