A coalition of groups fighting for an important new labor and public health standard has released a new video. Without paid sick days for workers, the advocates say, we risk a real-life version of the film “Contagion.”
Here’s the video:
A quick excerpt from the press release:
RALEIGH (Sep. 12, 2011) — As the new blockbuster film Contagion, a thriller about a global flu pandemic, finishes its first weekend at the box office, advocates are releasing an online-video calledContagion: Not Just a Movie.
The web film, produced by Family Values @ Work, shows the stories of five American workers who have been forced to go into work when they are sick because they weren’t allowed to take off or couldn’t afford going without pay. Working sick in restaurants, grocery stores, coffee shops and on the school bus, they worry about passing on their illness to co-workers, clients, customers and riders. These workers are some of the 44 million Americans without paid sick days who risk their families’ financial security or their jobs if they stay home when they are ill.
“Because a Fayetteville food server with an illness couldn’t take time off without losing a job, thousands of North Carolinians were exposed to hepatitis this year,” said Louisa Warren, coordinator of the NC Paid Sick Days Coalition. “North Carolina knows better than most states how important it is for workers to have access to paid sick days.”
Approximately 1.3 million North Carolina workers lack access to even one paid sick day.