Back in 2020 we were shocked to hear that pregnant workers didn’t have the proper and fair legal protections or accommodations across the country. Protections such as flexible hours, leave to recover from childbirth, or being excused from strenuous activities, not safe during
pregnancy were not guaranteed. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was drafted to address these issues. Unfortunately, this act encountered congressional roadblocks that had to be overcome. So, we worked with the ACLU to pass the PWFA by leveraging the voices of women all over the country with patch-through calls.
We crafted detailed scripts and asked voters to send their voices to their legislators to pass the bill so pregnant workers wouldn’t have to choose between a healthy pregnancy and a job. This wasn’t just a single effort; we ran multiple programs over the course of two years. Using demographic targeting, we found that the strongest voices came from older woman and young people, who also were more likely to patch through to leverage their support.
Across multiple programs, we patched over 10,000 people to Senators and members of Congress. We made so much effective noise we were able to get a sitting member to change their vote after we flooded their office with calls from their own constituents. In December of 2022 PFWA was passed by a narrow margin of 225 to 201 and finally signed by President Biden demonstrating that coordinated voices leveraged by paid phones, will always have a role to play.