L.A. Dept. of Power and Water

[mamajake]

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8266373

The head of the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water going to the mat to protect breastfeeding support for employees. I bet he could use support from customers. Perhaps the Board member who thinks the Department shouldn't be in the "social service business" could benefit from hearing how customers feel as well.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Good for them!

[rmzbm]

[nonnymoose]

Hey, the director's got numbers to back up his plan, so he can tell the other guy to go p*** up a rope. The "social services" comment just makes him sound like a jerk, anyway.

[moderngal]

good for them!!

[llamalluv]

My husband is in Public Works, and we get all kinds of "weird" goodies, as employees and family of employees. Job assistance (which is what a lactation consultant IS!) seems like a much more reasonable expense than "Lunch at the Zoo" (yes, really - we've had a luncheon at the zoo!)

I bet if the Board member looked hard enough, he could find a way to cut unnecessary expenses by 10 times what they pay one lactation consultant. (He might start with a 10% paycut to himself!)

[Equuskia]

Breastfeeding saves water and power. What's not to like about it?

[Ironica]

Wheee! I'm an LA DWP customer! I'm going to the website right now to let them know how excited I am about this!

Especially since I'm on the list for a job with another city agency... and I put down my availability as beginning three months PP (eek!).

ETA: Ok, here's what I just submitted to their website (using my real name and phone number, so they can verify that I'm really a customer ;-):

I just read in the Daily News about the LA DWP's program to help lactating mothers who are employees. I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing this program for your employees. In spite of the clear cost savings for supporting breastfeeding, so many companies allow their cultural biases to sway them into pushing working mothers to end nursing, to the detriment of all of us. I was thrilled to move back into DWP territory (from SCE) a year ago, and this news just makes me feel even better about my power bill!

[kdubs_mom]

I don't live in LA, but I'm willing to bet that the residents of that city won't even
notice the paltry sum of $50,000 when it's divided up among ALL residents.
And, they have a rule that says contracts less than $150k can be awarded without board approval. Those board members sound pretty heartless, actually.

[meganmarie]

Well, good for the guy who is defending the program.

But did anyone read the comments? It is enough to make you want to cry. Most are bashing the idea, many in really insulting terms.

It could be nice for some of us to post in defense, just so its not such a depressing read. I'm going to go do that now.

[mamajake]

Update: Union Confronts the Board in Support of Lactation Services

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-m...ck=1&cset=true

I looove this!

Particular goodies from the article:

Also appearing before the board was Jodel Navarro, a supervisor in the DWP's print shop. In an interview before she spoke, she said: "My son was a 1.5-pound, four-month preemie who was supposed to die. But the specialist told me to force Kaiser to take him out of the incubator and let me breast-feed him. The doctor swears that is why he's alive. Johnny's now 13."

and

"For those, like Mr. Moore who don't know what lactation services are, I suggest they come out of their caves and join us in 2008," Ramallo said.

I think maybe they should re-name this union - sounds like more of a Sisterhood to me.

[Equuskia]

Patsaouras, then a commissioner, argued against it.

"We're in the business of producing water and electricity, not in the social-service business," he said at the time.

There are hardware stores and other businesses that sponsor sports teams. They are not "in the sporting business" but they feel that sponsoring teams in their community is important, plus it's great advertising. Walmart (at least here) has the teacher of the year award and other similar activities where they donate money to schools. They aren't in the "education business" but they also feel contributing to the community is important, as well as it's a great tax writeoff. Walmart (at least here) also has lactation rooms for employees with a couch and fridge, and one for customers in the fitting room. McD as well as other corps sponsor the Olympics and basketball championships. All of these things can be considered "social services". If it's about the money, I'm sure they have competent accountants that can find a tax loophole to write it off. And how many customers does the DWP have? Is an increase going to be even noticable? I think they are just being asshats.

[meganmarie]

Yeah, the social-services comment is ridiculous. I work in strategy consulting to Fortune 500 corporations. I've pumped for a full year at work, twice now. Both the company I work for and the clients I've been assigned to work at (a major hotel chain, a top global pharma company, a beverage manufacturer, etc.) have lactation rooms and varying degrees of health services and breastfeeding support services. It is absolutely something that successful private-sector have decided to do, both because it is the "right" thing to do, because it helps retain employees (who are expensive to recruit and train), and because it reduces health care and insurance costs in the long run.

I wrote about this in the comments on the article, because I found the other comments to be so insulting and ignorant. It is extremely common at big corporations to have nurses on staff, to offer blood-pressure screenings and flu vaccines and weight-loss and smoking cessation programs. There is a relatively low per-person cost to all of these things, and an absolute bang for the buck if it helps keep employees healthy, keeps them at their desks, keeps them from quitting etc.

For people to complain about this because it is funded by ratepayers is silly. When you buy a can of soda, you are paying for PepsiCo's extensive in-house health services department and the gym at the corporate headquarters. Whatever!

[Ironica]

Just to follow up, I got a lovely personal response from my email thanking me for my kind comments and noting that my email would be forwarded to the General Manager.

[AutumnMama]

That's awesome!