The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 4, 2007, Sunday

Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

March 4, 2007 Sunday
Main Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 2E

HEADLINE: People in Business: UP CLOSE / CINDIA CAMERON, national organizing director, 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women: 'Sticky' issues;
Advocate for women in workplace focuses on pay, benefit, family and advancement concerns.

BYLINE: TAMMY JOYNER; Staff

BODY:


When she's not defending the rights of workers, Cindia Cameron is on a soccer field somewhere in Atlanta most weekends playing defense for her team, the FireAnts.

It's an over-30 league of women from all walks of life and jobs. But nobody really spends much time talking about what they do for a living.

And that's just fine with Cameron, who spends many of her waking hours pushing for better pay and working conditions for women.

Recently, over lunch at the Thumbs Up diner near historic Auburn Avenue, Cameron talked about three decades of service to workers.

Q: Have conditions for female workers changed since you joined 9 to 5?

A: The good news is that women work in nearly every job category imaginable. We've yet to see a woman president or vice president. But that's clearly on the horizon. The not-so-good news is that 80 percent of women workers in America work in 40 job categories, most of which have low pay, few benefits and little opportunity for advancement. The largest single job category for women is still administrative and clerical work. There's great organizations working on the "glass ceiling" issue. But 9 to 5's focus is what we call the "sticky four."

Q: What's that?

A: Low pay, lack of benefits, lack of advancement opportunities and lack of family-flexible policies. 9 to 5 was one of the organizations that worked hard for 12 years to pass the Family Medical Leave Act. That's one of the most-used employment policies across the country. Millions of people have benefited from being able to take time from work when their families needed them. However, it's unpaid. It applies to only about half the private-sector work force, and it's limited in a variety of ways.

Q: So it sounds like the basic problems for working women still exist?

A: We have definitely made progress. There's more public awareness. Women have more ability to negotiate for [family-flexible policies] where companies are really competing for trained, experienced staff. They recognize these kinds of policies help them in hiring and retaining workers. Where we still have a long way to go is for women in low-wage jobs where companies have not gotten the message. Cashiers, housekeepers, cleaning services, telemarketing jobs. Those kinds of jobs don't generally provide paid sick days, family leave. They often don't provide affordable health insurance.

Q: The family leave bill has emerged recently as some lawmakers push to get paid leave included. What's your take on it?

A: There's many efforts to expand access to FMLA at the state level as well as to provide some wage replacement through payroll taxes so people can afford to take the leave they're entitled to.

Q: Is government-mandated paid leave a possibility in this country?

A: We've already seen it passed in California. It's currently being considered in Washington state, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Q: Where do we stand in Georgia?

A: We're continuing to advocate for unpaid leave for school conferences and routine medical appointments. We're also advocating on the federal level for the Healthy Families Act so that all workers would have a minimum guarantee of seven paid sick days a year. There's many family-flexible policies out there. But it's most often middle- and upper-income workers who can take advantage of those policies.

Q: You've said 9 to 5 is your paid job. You're also involved in efforts to get minimum wage raised in Georgia, and you played a big role in the state's Living Wage campaign, which helps workers get adequate pay to be able to support their families. Do the two campaigns often get linked together?

A: They're both strategies for looking at the problem of working poverty. They're different in that minimum wage applies to nearly all employers and it's set at the state or federal level. It's just what it says, minimum. It's very minimum standards. We're talking about moving from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Living wage is a standard that can be applied at a city or county level to employers who receive public tax dollars through contracts or economic development assistance. Living wage is generally built around looking at the actual local cost of a family's minimum-needs budget. So in Atlanta, for example, we came up with a figure of $10.50 an hour plus health benefits, which amounts to about $22,000 a year. And these are 2002 numbers.

Q: How did you get involved with the minimum wage campaign?

A: In 2004 and 2005, state lawmakers passed a law that barred cities and counties in Georgia from passing living wage ordinances. So we shifted our focus to increasing minimum wage in the state. The bill was [recently] defeated in a Senate committee. However, I still feel very optimistic that parts of this bill will pass by next year.

There's many different strategies. Legislation works in a lot of different ways. We have tremendous public support. We did a public opinion survey through the University of Georgia and found that over 80 percent Republican, male, rural, white respondents favor raising minimum wage. We also found bipartisan support among legislators at the Capitol for minimum wage increase. It has broad public support including among many individual business owners.

Q: Recent national elections reshaped Congress into what some are saying may be a group of lawmakers more amenable to workplace issues. Your thoughts?

A: It's true many of the policies we've worked for look like they have a better chance in Congress than they do at the state Legislature --- Healthy Families act and minimum wage increase. We still have work to do in Georgia to educate the public and build strong coalitions.

Q: There must be days when your work becomes overwhelming.

A: There are days when we hear on the Job Survival hotlines or days we hear from [women] and the incredible struggles they're going through to keep kids in school, phone bills paid, getting to work and keeping food on the table with so little public or corporate policy support. On the other hand, the reason I keep doing this is because I'm so inspired by the women who make a way out of no way with their incredible courage and creativity.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren't in your current job?

A: If I were 20 years younger, I'd be coaching a girls soccer team.

THE CINDIA CAMERON FILE

* Residence: Candler Park in Atlanta

* Family: Husband, Steve Rentch, electronics technician for MARTA; daughter, Kyla, 18, student at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.; son, Lukas, 21, student at Central Wyoming College.

* Education: Graduated from Rutgers with a bachelor's degree in labor studies and economics.

* Career path: Worked at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., teaching women how to become union leaders, 1978-80; Southern Appalachian Labor School at West Virginia Tech in Montgomery, W.Va., 1980-82; 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women, since 1983.

* Hobbies: Reading and playing soccer

* Favorite books: "The latest book I love is one my daughter actually passed along from a college course. It's called 'In the Middle of Everywhere' by Mary Pipher. It's about refugees' experience in America."

GRAPHIC: Photo: SEAN DRAKES / SpecialWhen she isn't working for 9 to 5, Cindia Cameron can be found on the soccer field, where she plays defense for her team, the FireAnts./ImageData*