Use NOW’s Capwiz interactive political page to send messages to your elected officials:
(http://capwiz.com/lwv/state/main/?lvl=L&azip=14215&state=NY&view=myofficials)

PRO-CHOICE BROOKLYN
is tired of clinic patients being harassed every day!

Join Brooklyn-Queens NOW and Brooklyn Pro-Choice Network
at the next prayer vigil of
Bishop DiMarzio and the Helpers of God's Precious Infants ("HOGPI").

Let them know:
“YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE”

Very special appearances by
Church Ladies for Choice
Rude Mechanical Orchestra

Saturday, June 25, 2011
8:15 A.M.
43rd Street & 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS:
R train to 45th St. (at 4th Avenue, Brooklyn)
or B63 bus (on 5th Ave.) to 43rd Street

CHILDCARE SUBSIDY BILLS

In the next couple of days two important child care bills will be moving through committee.

As you know child care is a necessity for most New York families. Child care and after-school care provide an avenue for women, particularly single mothers, to obtain jobs and create a path to self-sufficiency.

During these difficult economic times single and two-parent families must have working parents in order to make ends meet.

Parents who work night shifts or who have teens who work are sometimes disqualified from child care subsidies. The two bills below address those issues.

Therefore BQNOW joins with the YWCA to support:

• A.6545/S.4115 so that eligible parents who work the late shift can receive a child care subsidy to allow them to obtain eight hours of sleep
• A.5843/S.4116 so that the income of older teens doesn’t not decrease the availability of child care subsidies

Please contact your senator and assemblymember and ask them to support these child care subsidy protections for New York families.

To find out who represents you in NYS Government, click here.

For a pre-written message, visit the YWCA alert page.

Please make phone calls in support of the NY Anti-Retaliation bill

See the NYWA alert below for more information.

Please make phone calls to your senators to encourage them to co-sponsor and/or support this bill. Click here for a sample script which you might want to use. Click here for a list of NYS Senators, with their email addresses and phone numbers in Albany.

We would also like to request that you pass this Action Alert to members of other organizations you belong to. More power in numbers!

Update:  Visit the NOW Young Feminists Task Force blog to read a guest post by Rachelle Suissa, BQ-NOW's VP,  recapping the January 22, 2011 Speakout at Emily's Clinic, Bronx NY.

Celebrating 38 years since Roe v. Wade

RAISE YOUR VOICE AT A COMMUNITY SPEAK-OUT
FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM!
Added 12/6/10

January 22 ~ Noon to 2 pm
In front of Dr. Emily's Clinic

Final Countdown for Paycheck Fairness!
Added 11/11/10

CALL – TWEET – SHARE THIS!

The moment is here - we are within striking distance of passing the Paycheck Fairness Act! The Senate will be back in session and could vote as soon as next Thursday. As part of the Equal Pay Coalition NYC we are part of the national push to get this bill passed. Help make that happen!

PFA: KEY PROVISIONS

Equal work deserves equal pay. In this time of economic crisis, women and families cannot afford to bear the burden of this discrimination. The Paycheck Fairness Act would make it harder for employers to hide pay discrimination, would help train women and girls about salary negotiation, support government collection of critical wage data, and reward employers that have good pay practices.

For employees, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who discuss salaries with their colleagues;
• Require that employers defend any gender pay disparities by showing that the pay differences exist for legitimate, job-related reasons;
• Remove an inequality in wage discrimination law so that remedies available to plaintiffs in Equal Pay Act claims will be the same as the damages available to plaintiffs who file pay discrimination claims under other laws;
• Remove obstacles in the Equal Pay Act to facilitate participation in class action lawsuits challenging systemic pay discrimination; and
• Create a negotiation skills training program for women and girls.

For employers, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

• Recognize employers for excellence in their pay practices; and
• Provide assistance to all businesses, with a special focus on small businesses, to help them with their equal pay practices.

For enforcement agencies, the Paycheck Fairness Act would:

Ensure the Department of Labor utilizes the full range of investigatory tools to uncover pay discrimination, including collecting wage data from federal contractors; and
• Direct the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to conduct a survey of what pay information is available to assist federal agencies with enforcing pay discrimination laws and to use that information to create a system to collect wage data.

More info at: www.aauw.org  ~  www.equalpaynewyork.org  ~ www.nwlc.org 

EQUAL PAY ACT-ions
Added 6/12/10

Make our voices heard for equal pay!

Background on the 3 New York State bills and pay equity. More info can be found in NYWA's EPC-NYC Pay Equity Guide and Toolkit.

1. A6712/S5271 - provides that people who work for NY State in job titles where women and people of color predominate receive equal pay for job titles of equal value (Sponsor: Senator Velmanette Montgomery) The Assembly passed 3 pay equity bills again this year. Due to current fiscal constraints, the Coalition is pushing this bill which will have a better chance of being signed into law because it will have little or zero financial impact to the State.

2. S1799 - Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE's) would direct NYS to award more contracts to certified minority and women business enterprises [by enlarging the number of state agencies covered; including the use of MWBEs in financial and professional services in state contracts; specifying the diversity practices used to procure vendors; clarifying state agency reporting requirements; and establishing a "public authorities procurement council" composed of senior leaders from state agencies and representatives of the private sector.]

3. Free Speech on Wages [no bill number YET] We are advocating for stronger laws to protect a worker's right to share salary information without fear of being fired or reprimanded for disclosing information or asking about pay. This would have helped Lily Ledbetter! The vast majority of workers are employed in the private sector where salaries can be kept secret and employees may be fired for sharing salary information. Without salary information, it is impossible for employees to know whether they are being paid fairly.

For more information, download the email from the Equal Pay Coalition/New York Women's Agenda.

Call on State Senator Carl Kruger
to change his position on same–sex marriage

Senator Kruger was the only Democrat in the State Senate from Brooklyn to vote against legalizing same-sex marriage in NYS. In a local newspaper article he claimed that although this may not be his personal view he must represent the conservative views of his constituency.

This is nonsense. The voting record of the 27th senatorial district is not predominantly conservative. If it was it would have elected Republican legislators. Kruger is currying favor with the religious fundamentalists, who do not represent the majority of our district. Although he runs on the Democratic line, he did not endorse Hillary Clinton when she ran for the Senate against Rick Lazio, nor did he endorse then Manhattan borough President Ruth Messinger when she ran for mayor against Rudy Giuliani.

Please call his office, 718-743-8610, or even better send a written letter. Below is a sample letter you may use (click the image on the right to download the letter in Word format). It’s important that you include your home address.

NYS Senator Carl Kruger
2201 Avenue U
Brooklyn, NY 11229

Dear Senator Kruger,

As a NYS Senator who runs as a Democrat, I assumed that you endorse the Democratic Party’s position of ensuring the civil rights of the citizens of NY State. However, you are the only Democrat from Brooklyn who voted not to support the civil rights of same-sex couples by denying them their equal right to a civil marriage in NY State.

It is distressing to me that you ally yourself time and again in the Senate with Republicans and the most regressive members of the Democratic Party. This is not bi-partisanship nor is it independent voting. Rather, you betray the Democratic voters of your District by misrepresenting your political allegiances.

I hope that when this legislation is re-introduced in the Senate in the coming session that you will reconsider your political alliances and recognize that the civil right of loving couples who wish to commit their lives together in civil marriage is the same regardless of gender.