Workers are the winners

There has been much sturm and drang over the state’s paid family leave proposal, including criticism from one of the state Senate’s more liberal members and a full-out assault by the state Chamber of Commerce.

And yet, the legislation has now passed both houses of the Legislature and is on to the governor, who has stated publicly that he plans to sign it into law.

Given the opposition from the business community and the way in which campaign cash tends to trump belief in the Legislature, the

The plan is pretty simple, according to The Star-Ledger:

The paid family leave act (A873) would allow workers to apply for up to six weeks off to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a sick parent, spouse or child, and collect up to two-thirds of their pay, up to a maximum of $524 a week. The benefit would be funded by an average worker contribution of about $33 a year, levied through a mandatory employee payroll tax.

Basically, it is similar to unemployment or disability insurance, money that workers will pay into a fund that will assist them in crisis situations. The state federal governments already grant family and medical leave. But that leave is unpaid and too often forces workers to choose between a paycheck and their families.

Consider the son or daughter who must take care of an ailing parent, or the parent dealing with an ailing child. As things stand, they could take the time without pay; under the new legislation, they would get some compensation — and, despite the business community’s complaints, it should do businesses little harm.

The biggest problem with the bill is that it had been revised to address the concerns of small businesses — while the bill would require companies with more than 50 employees to hold a position for a worker on leave, it offers no protection for workers at smaller companies — which is why Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Trenton) opposed it.

“This bill is discriminatory and unfair,” said Sen. Shirley K. Turner, D-Mercer. “Those individuals working for small employers are not given the same rights as everyone else, although they have to pay. … This is taxation without participation.”

I think the bill is a good start, but Turner’s criticisms must be addressed. Every worker must be given protection — especially if they are being required to pay into the new system.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Walsh shows the class that Isaiah lacked

Donnie Walsh’s first move proves he is the anti-Isaiah. That doesn’t mean he’s going to build a winner, but at least he may return a smidgeon of class to the organization.

Consider the way he handled questions about Isaiah Thomas during yesterday’s news conference:

“He is a great basketball mind, and I’m not going to judge anything from afar,” Walsh said. “I’ve told him that we’re going to sit down and talk in the coming days, and then we’ll go from there. I think he’s got the skills to help this franchise.”

Some on sports radio — callers, mostly — speculated that Walsh might keep Thomas around, though I can’t see it. Walsh has a reputation for being a classy guy and it seems likely that he was treating Thomas with the respect that all of us deserve, the kind of respect that Thomas failed to show Don Chaney when he fired him as coach. (Thomas allowed Chaney to come into work with the whole world knowing what was about to happen, the whole world aside from Chaney, that is.)

Ian O’Connor, in The Record, offers this read:

He’s one of the good guys in the NBA, an executive who gets it, and he wasn’t about to make his first act as Knicks president the gangland-style execution of Isiah Thomas’ career.

Make no mistake: Thomas never again will have a chance to hurt the Knicks. Walsh is either going to fire him outright or marginalize him into oblivion.

Walsh didn’t take this near-impossible job just so he could sabotage his own administration by giving Thomas a role within a dozen area codes of meaningful. Walsh once gave Larry Bird permission to fire Isiah in Indiana, this after Thomas made three straight trips to the playoffs, and now the new president wants to let the old president die a dignified death on the bench of a 60-loss team.

Again, there is no way to know whether Walsh can repair the damage done to this franchise by Scott Layden, Isaiah Thomas and Jim Dolan, whether he can cleanse the stench and bring in players willing to play defense and work hard, whether he can get anyone in the league to take on the contracts of guys like Zack Randolph, Quentin Richardson and others (I like Q, but he offers very little to a mess like this) so that he can create some salary cap flexibility, which is essential to success in the NBA.

There is no way to know, but at least Walsh appears likely to move ahead with dignity and class that has long been missing from the Garden.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Route 1, round 2

The state has put Route 1 widening back on the table — or, rather, it has put a study on the table that will determine if it wants to conduct in-depth design work and research on Route 1 that will determine if the project is worth pursuing.

Got that?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.