Woman Wants President’s Help With Child Care

During her company’s busy season last year, Debbie Allen worked 10-hour shifts, six days a week.

That meant the single mother had to awaken her 4-year-old son at 3:30 a.m., take him to his grandparents and be at work by 5 a.m.

And even when she works her regular 7-3:30 shift, she can’t find or afford day care for the boy in Piney Flats, in rural northeastern Tennessee.

She asked her employer, Fingerhut’s catalog distribution center at Piney Flats, to be more flexible or provide day care. She said they won’t help.

She planned to discuss her predicament at the “Family Reunion V: Family and Work” conference being held today and Monday in Nashville with President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore as hosts.

“I hope that it will wake up these large companies,” she said of the conference. “They’re going to have to address this situation. The way the economy is, it takes everyone contributing in a household to make ends meet, especially when you’re not making much money.”

The Fingerhut distribution center’s general manager, Joe Howell, said the company tried to help a day-care center open nearby, but there wasn’t enough interest among the 1,000 employees.

He said the workers found it too expensive.Gore said that’s the not kind of attitude he wants to highlight.

“Those employers who adopt family-friendly policies, the more flexible they are in work schedules, they’ll find it pays off on the bottom line,” the vice president said.