Regina Romero: Why I'm suing Arizona to help low-wage workers

Last month, the Arizona Legislature passed, and Gov. Doug Ducey signed, HB2579, prohibiting cities and towns from enacting an earned sick day policy for workers in their communities.

This pre-emptive law was a shot at both Tempe and Tucson, cities exploring citywide sick-day initiatives and seeking to craft a compromise ordinance that would have guaranteed baseline protections for local workers.

This week, five councilmembers from Tempe, Flagstaff and Tucson, 22 state representatives, and 10 state senators — representing cities and towns across Arizona — have launched a lawsuit, challenging the constitutionality of HB2579 in Maricopa Superior Court.

Why have we, council members from across the state signed on as plaintiffs in this case against the state of Arizona? We are driven to action because the long-held value of local control; and because working families across our state deserve to be protected as much as businesses.

Home rule provision

Our Arizona Constitution grants our 19 chartered cities the right to legislate free of state interference and prohibits the Legislature from dictating matters of local concern. Regulating benefits, such as earned sick days, falls squarely within our duties as elected officials closest to the people we serve.

HB2579 represents blatant legislative overreach into local decision making. Proposition 202, passed by voters in 2006, clearly establishes that regulating nonwage benefits is a local issue. Ironically, many of the GOP politicians who are trying to subvert local control are the same complaining about top-down governance from Washington.

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According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, nearly 1 million Arizona citizens — almost half of all state workers — lack access to earned sick days. Those without this basic employee benefit are primarily low-wage workers, especially in the service and restaurant industries. And, no surprise, they are disproportionately women (70 percent) and people of color (62 percent).

These alarming statistics portray a painful story of families at risk, one paycheck away from financial insecurity. As councilmembers, we are entrusted to make thoughtful policy choices that best represent the values and ideals of our residents. It is why we, as public servants, cannot abide this attack on local decision-making are taking this fight to the courts.

Statewide effort

In addition to the lawsuit launched June 21, the Healthy Families Coalition is gathering signatures to place a voter-driven initiative on the November ballot that, if passed, will guarantee Arizona citizens a modest number of earned sick days and an incremental increase in the minimum wage, reaching $12 an hour in 2020. I plan on supporting this initiative, and I hope you will, too.

To protect public health, we need to let those who work hard preparing and serving food, or taking care of the elderly or children, stay home when they are sick. No one should have to choose between a paycheck and their health.

Mothers should feel secure staying home and caring for a sick child or parent without worrying about losing their job or sacrificing their rent. That’s how we build economic security and resilience for our entire community — at the local level and across our state.