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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-6652, x107.
Officials Meet with Families and Business Leaders from
Around Nation, Urge Employers and Others to Join "Working Women Count Honor
Roll"
At a White House ceremony today, First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich saluted corporate executives who
have pledged to invest $100 million in family-friendly workplace programs that
will benefit workers in 50 communities.
Urging every employer in the country to adopt policies
that help workers balance their family and work responsibilities, the First
Lady and Reich discussed the historic investment with families who benefit from
these family-friendly policies.
Senior executives from 20 lead companies of the American
Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care (ABC) attended the event, as
well as families of their employees. ABC recently made an historic pledge to
invest $100 million over six years in child and elder care programs. James
Schiro, chief executive officer of Price Waterhouse, one of ABC's lead
companies, was featured at the event, along with working families from around
the country.
The First Lady and Reich urged employers, organizations
and individuals throughout the nation to join the Working Women Count Honor
Roll. Launched on Labor Day by the Labor Department's Women's Bureau, this
nationwide initiative is designed to improve the working lives of a million
Americans by next spring. The Honor Roll encourages employers, organizations
and individuals to implement new policies in the three areas working women care
about most: building the family-friendly workplace, improving pay and benefits,
and valuing women's work. ABC has pledged to join the Honor Roll, and a variety
of other Honor Roll participants from across the nation also attended the
event.
Among the families who met with the First Lady were Susan
O'Neil, an administrative assistant at Deloitte & Touche in Boston, and her
three-year-old daughter, Stephanie. O'Neil and her self-employed husband were
able to find child care for Stephanie with help from a company-sponsored
referral program. O'Neil also takes advantage of flex-time, working from 7:30
AM to 4:00 PM, and she uses a company plan that allows her to set-aside up to
$5,000 of her pay before taxes to cover child care costs.
"This Administration is challenging other businesses and
organizations to make work better for women, men and their families. By
encouraging and rewarding family friendly policies, the Working Women Count
Honor Roll exemplifies the creative partnerships government and business must
enter into if we are to do what is best for our families and what is best for
our growing economy. Hundreds have taken up the challenge, but thousands more
need to accept," said the First Lady.
"Investing in programs that improve the quality of life
for U.S. workers pays off on the bottom line," Reich said. "Workers who are
successful in balancing work and family are also the most successful workers.
These corporations send an important message that helping workers balance work
and family is good for business."
Representatives from the following ABC companies
participated in the White House event: Aetna Life & Casualty, Allstate
Insurance Company, American Express, AMOCO, AT&T, Chevron, Citicorp,
Deloitte and Touche, Eastman Kodak Company, Exxon, GE Capital Services, Hewlett
Packard, IBM, Johnson and Johnson, Mobil, NYNEX, Price Waterhouse, Texaco,
Texas Instruments and Xerox.
Other families who met with the First Lady included:
- Susan Cohen, Joel Silberman, and their two daughters, six-year- old
Julia and four-year-old Rebecca. Both parents work for IBM in Austin, Texas and
use flexible scheduling options to be home when a child is sick or to attend
family events. The children are enrolled in IBM-sponsored child care
centers.
- Alma Ramon, an executive secretary with the YWCA of the City of New
York. Ramon is the single mother of a nine-year-old son, Michael. The YWCA's
family-friendly policies let Ramon bring Michael to work on his days off from
school, and send him to a YWCA summer camp with a new tuition discount for
employees.
- Suzanne Sherman, a physician with Kodak's Medical Preventive Service
in Rochester, N.Y. She and her husband, a building contractor, have two sons --
six-year-old Alexander and five-year-old Bowen. Dr. Sherman relies on Kodak's
emergency and back-up child care services to keep her family on track.
The Women's Bureau was founded by Congress in 1920 with a
mandate to "promote the welfare of wage-earning women." Seventy-five years old
this year, the Women's Bureau is the only federal agency designated to serve
women in the workforce.
Last year, the Women's Bureau launched Working Women
Count!, a national initiative through which more than a quarter of a million
women told policy makers what they like and don't like about their jobs. This
spring, President Clinton accepted a set of policy recommendations designed to
address the concerns women raised from Reich and Women's Bureau Director Karen
Nussbaum. The Women's Bureau is distributing Honor Roll application materials
nationwide. Honor Roll materials are available to anyone who calls the Women's
Bureau's toll-free hotline: 1-800-827-5335.
NOTE: A list by state of corporate and family participants
in today's White House event is attached. For more information about specific
attendees, call Lisa Lederer at 202/371-1999.
WHITE HOUSE EVENT -- TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31 at 2:30 PM
FAMILIES SCHEDULED TO ATTEND WORK IN:
Connecticut Hartford, Stamford
Distict
of Columbia Washington
Georgia Atlanta
Illinois Chicago
Maryland Hagerstown
Massachusetts Attleboro, Boston
Minnesota Minneapolis
New Jersey Cherry Hill, New Brunswick, Warren
New York Harrison, New York City, Rochester, Westchester County
Texas Austin, Houston
Virginia Fairfax
AMERICAN BUSINESS COLLABORATION COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES SCHEDULED TO
ATTEND FROM:
California Palo Alto, San Francisco
Connecticut Hartford, Stamford, Wilton
Distict of
Columbia Washington
Illinois Chicago, Northbrook
Massachusetts Boston
Minnesota Minneapolis
New Jersey Morristown, New Brunswick
New York Armonk, Long Island City, New York City, Rochester,
Tarrytown, White Plains
Texas Dallas, Irving
Virginia Fairfax
HONOR ROLL PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING WILL REPRESENT:
Arizona State of Arizona Family Friendly Task Force
California Bay Area Emergency Care Consortium (San Francisco)
Colorado Work Options Group (Denver)
D.C. National Federation of Black Women Business Owners
Kentucky Jefferson County/Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce
Massachusetts City of Boston
Missouri City of Kansas City
Communications Workers of America and City of Lee's
Summit
New Jersey Kwasha Lipton (Fort Lee)
New York YWCA (New York City)
Ohio Charles W. Eliot Middle School (Cleveland)
Oregon Oregon Commission for Child Care (Salem)
Oregon Community Foundation's Child Development Fund
(Portland)
Texas Fort Worth Star Telegram
Washington Seafirst Bank (Seattle)
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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