A Better Balance (ABB)

The group is heavily funded by left-of-center organized interests, especially the Ford Foundation;⁴ it has also taken funding from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) labor union and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). ⁵

Employment Regulation

Paid Leave Mandates

A Better Balance is a strong supporter of mandatory paid leave legislation. At the federal level the group advocates for the FAMILY Act, a bill to create a new federal government program and mandate that all companies, including small businesses, provide more than 2 months of paid-leave to their employees funded by a payroll tax increase. ^{6 7}

Scheduling

ABB is in favor of passing the Schedules That Work Act, which would implement new federal regulations regarding employee schedules. ⁸ The legislation would force businesses to limit employees on call time and minimize changes in daily, weekly, and monthly schedules. ⁹

Pay Gap

In partnership with PowHer New York and Communications Workers of America Local 1180, ABB authored a letter supporting several pieces of legislation in New York. ¹⁰ One piece of legislation, S.5248A, backed in the letter altered pay discrimination laws. ¹⁰ The legislation made it where rather than requiring “equal work” for equal pay, jobs merely have to be “substantially similar work” to mandate equal pay. Other left-wing organizations that signed onto the letter included National Partnership for Women and Families, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Planned Parenthood, Legal Momentum, and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. ¹⁰

Department of Labor

A Better Balance advocated against the nomination of food-service executive Andrew Pudzer to lead the U.S. Department of Labor in the Trump administration. In a letter to the members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, ABB attacked Puzder’s opposition to expanded government regulations and desire to streamline business practices. ¹¹

Legal Advocacy

After President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, A Better Balance objected to several of his rulings. In 2013, Gorsuch had held that the federal government could not mandate business owners to violate their religious beliefs by having them provide birth control coverage for their employees. ² In another case, Gorsuch had ruled in favor of a university that terminated a professor’s employment even after providing her with six months of sick leave. ² Due to these rulings, ABB expressed “grave doubts about Judge Gorsuch’s fitness to serve on our nation’s highest court.” ²

ABB also opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. One case ABB cited for opposing Kavanaugh’s nomination was a “Jane Doe” case involving an illegal immigrant minor seeking an abortion shortly after arriving in the United States. ³ Kavanaugh ruled that the illegal immigrant minor needed to be placed with a sponsor before obtaining an abortion. ¹² ABB was against any delay in the abortion which is a position that Kavanaugh claimed means “the Government must allow unlawful immigrant minors to have an immediate abortion on demand.” ³ Kavanaugh’s rulings against the Obamacare individual mandate and Obamacare’s burdensome process for requesting a religious exemption were others cited as troubling by ABB. ³ ABB participated in the NYC Stands with Survivors rally supporting Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. ¹³ Other left-of-center groups that joined the rally included the Working Families Party, Women’s March, and Center for Constitutional Rights. ¹⁴

Leadership

Co-Founder and Co-President

Sherry Leiwant is a co-founder and co-president of ABB. Prior to ABB, Leiwant was an Adjunct Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law, a senior staff attorney for Legal Momentum (then-called NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), and a senior staff attorney for Welfare Law Center. ¹⁵

Dina Bakst is a co-founder and co-president of ABB. Prior to ABB, Baskt was an attorney for Legal Momentum (then-called NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund) as well as an associate with Kaye, Scholer LLP law firm. She also sits on the board for Congregation Rodeph Sholom and the Hadassah Foundation. ¹⁶

Board of Directors

Several members of ABB’s board previously worked with the National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is now called Legal Momentum. ¹⁷ Board members are also associated with the left-of-center groups Anti-Defamation League, the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union, and EMILY’s List. ¹⁷