White House Summit on Working Families ... >
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June 23, 2014 - The White House
Summit on Working Families, co-sponsored by the White
House, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Center for American
Progress, brought together "businesses, economists, labor
leaders, legislators, advocates and the media" to discuss such
topics as workplace flexibility, paid family leave, and child
care. The all-day summit, at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel, sought to
"spark a national conversation,
keep making progress, and identify
solutions that
are good for both workers and employers – and that go right at the
heart of the economic stresses and the emotional strains that families
are going through." Given the current gridlock with Congress, the
focus of the summit was not
so much on legislative proposals as on highlighting problem areas and
best practices and showing businesses how they can
benefit from adopting worker-friendly workplace policies. In
conjunction with the summit, the White House also announced a host of
programs,
partnerships, initiatives, and resources being developed and
implemented by
Department of Labor and other departments, as well as a Presidential
Memorandum "directing federal agencies to implement existing efforts to
expand flexible workplace policies to the maximum possible
extent." [fact sheet]
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The
Council of Economic Advisors issued several reports
in advance of the summit. |
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A significant majority of
attendees were women.
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U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas
Perez, Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President and chair of
the White House Council on Women and Girls, and Neera
Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress.
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Dr. Jill Biden and Vice
President Joe Biden. [more]
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Plenary panel on "Family
Matters," moderated by Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic, included
Caludia Goddin, a professor of economics at Harvard University; Mark
Weinberger, global chairman and CEO of EY (Ernst & Young); Makini
Howell, owner of Plum Bistro Restaurant; and Mary Kay Henry, president
of the Service Employees International Union.
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Participants take photos at the
Selfie Wall.
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Breakout session on hourly
workers.
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Karen Finney of MSNBC moderates
the session on hourly workers.
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Plenary panel on "A 21st Century
Economy that Works for Busiess and Workers: Businesses need to adopt,"
moderated by Claire Shipman of ABC and Katty Kay of BBC, included Bob
Moritz, U.S. chairman and senior partner of PriceWaterhousCoopers;
Sheila Marcelo, CEO of Care.com; Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of
AFL-CIO; Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University; and
Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium Brewing Company.
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President Obama spoke in the
early afternoon [more]. He
mentioned "outdated policies and old ways of
thinking." Obama stated, "Family leave, childcare, workplace
flexibility,
a decent wage -- these are not frills, they are basic needs. They
shouldn’t be bonuses. They should be part of our bottom line as a
society. That’s what we’re striving for." After Obama's
speech, there
were more breakout sessions, a plenary on "Career
Ladders and Leadership," and First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the
closing remarks.
White House Summit on
Working Families | C-SPAN
Coverage | Several
GOP Responses
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