The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Dissimilar duo led way on minimum wage, family leave
As state Rep. Robyn Porter, DNew Haven, entered the 14th hour of leading debate on the $15 minimum wage in early May, her cochair on the labor committee, state Sen. Julie Kushner, DDanbury, entered the House chamber to bring Porter a small bouquet of yellow flowers.
They complemented Porter’s soft yellow power suit as she moved through the final moments of the marathon debate, batting down the last of the hypothetical questions from her colleagues.
It was a symbol of the work they’d done together, the differences they’d overcome, the amount they’d learned from each other and also the camaraderie that brought them to this point. It wasn’t easy, even in a year when progressive policies were expected to sail through the legislature.
“I'm a mom, and Julie is a mom, and it kind of felt like the birth of a promise, the birth of our baby, you know, like the joy of being able to deliver for the people that have entrusted you to do the work,” Porter said, reflecting on the moment during a July interview. “And it's taken years. So the fact that this was the year and we were actually able to get it done, these landmark pieces of legislation, was just very humbling. Besides being a parent, you know, this is the most humbling experience I've had thus far.”
The 2019 legislative session was described by many Capitol veterans as odd — it was a year of transition in both the legislature and the administrative branch with a laundry list of major legislation that included everything from tolls to casino expansion to labor laws like the $15 minimum wage and Paid Family Medical Leave.
Many assumed that with Democrats holding the trifecta — extending their margins in the House and Senate and maintaining control of the governor’s office — little would stop the passage of every proposed progressive policy. In reality, many of the year’s biggest proposals are still being negotiated, with no light yet at the end of the tunnel.
And so, on the heels of the Year of the Woman, it was the unlikely duo of Kushner and Porter who buckled down, leaned into their differences and led the passage of the two labor bills that were arguably the most significant pieces of legislation to pass this year.
It was a defiant win for the pair, who, for all they have in common, couldn’t be more different. And not only in the ways that are black and white.
Kushner, 67, grew up in a rural farming community of 1,500 people in the Midwest where her father owned the local grocery store.
Porter, 53, was born in Harlem and raised by her grandmother in Brooklyn and Queens where they shared a crowded threebedroom apartment with her three sisters, her mom and her mother’s two youngest brothers.
Kushner, a mom of three, was a single parent for a short time, but later remarried.
Porter, also a divorced single mother of two, never did.
Kushner worked as a union organizer for nearly four decades. She made it her life goal early on to address the needs of marginalized and minority women through her work in the labor movement.
“I recognized that while we have a different experience, we all deserve the same care and treatment and the same opportunities,” Kushner said. “And so, you know, that's what I dedicated my life to.”
Porter was one of those women — she had her first child, a son, at 21, and her second, a daughter, at 28. Her daughter was born premature and spent the first two months of her life in a hospital, while Porter postponed her maternity leave to work multiple minimum wage jobs in order to pay the bills. Once her daughter came home, she required roundtheclock care. First her maternity leave ran out. Then her vacation time. Then her sick leave. Finally, she was forced leave her job and sign up for public assistance to make ends meet and still care for her daughter.