The fight for paid sick leave in San Antonio is taking a big step forward.
On Thursday, Working Texans for Paid Sick Time advocates, including the Texas Organizing Project and supporters, gathered on the steps of San Antonio City Hall to announce that they’ve collected more than enough signatures to put a paid sick time ordinance on the November ballot. But now, the city must verify the signatures collected before moving forward.
"We collected 144,344 signatures," Joleen Garcia said.
Under city rules, voters can initiate any ordinance, but they are required to collect 10 percent of signatures based off all eligible voters in the last municipal election to put an ordinance on the election ballot. This means that supporters had to collect at least 75,000 signatures, which they exceeded.
It’s a big step forward for families like Mariel Esquivel, who joined the fight to gain sick leave. She says that she didn’t have the luxury of taking sick time off at her last job when her daughter was diagnosed with a serious illness.
"My daughter was diagnosed with a bone marrow disease and it was by far one of the hardest things that I had to go through,” Esquivel said. “Every single day having that doubt in my mind, ‘Is she ok? What's going on? Is she going to make it?"
Currently, there are no state or federal laws requiring paid sick time.
According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research website, approximately 39 percent of workers in San Antonio don’t have paid sick time.
If the ordinance is approved, it would require employers in San Antonio to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Depending on the business size, sick time would cap off at six or eight days annually.
Esquivel said that she couldn’t afford to financially take a sick day, and if she did, she would run the risk of getting in trouble.
Supporters filled more than a dozen boxed with signatures and presented them to the city clerk’s office.
"It's a beautiful day for workers in San Antonio," one supporter said.
The city clerk’s office will review the signatures and determine if the 10 percent threshold was met. The office released the following statement from Deputy City Clerk Leticia Saenz:
“We will follow the same process we did with the previous petitions and review them in accordance with State law and the City’s Charter.”
If the signatures are approved by the office, voters will have the final word in November’s election.
“We all deserve to have the peace of mind of sick time," Esquivel said.