Judith Galtry wrote so eloquently about the rights of babies to breastfeed.
I have just got off the phone talking to an LLL Leader in Pennsylvania who
was making inquiries about federal laws regarding a mother's rights to pump
at work. The mother in question works in a production line. During her 8
hour shift she gets one 10 minute and one 20 minute break. That's it. How on
earth can she find time to pump at work? Even for a non-pumping person,
those hours seem barbaric to me. I happen to know that these conditions of
work are quite common for line workers. Another mother in a similar
situation told me how nobody was allowed to leave the line until the
supervisor found a replacement to step in - and often there WAS no
replacement. She related how a fellow worker with a stomach disorder was not
allowed to go to the bathroom - with the inevitable results.

Something is seriously wrong with a system that allows such inhuman
treatment of it's workers. We are literally slaves to the system. It makes
me feel angry and frustrated when I have to tell people that they have no
legal recourse.

BTW, In the case I mentioned above, the mother's union rep was less than
helpful. Nobody cares. Nobody wants to know. We have so much work to do in
this field.

Norma Ritter IBCLC
private practice in Big Flats - less than one hour south of Cornell :)
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