DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — — A coalition of more than 100 labor, religious and social action groups and individuals on Monday rolled out its campaign to require that Ohio workers be able to earn seven paid sick days per year to care for themselves or a child, spouse or parent.

The proposal would apply to companies with 25 or more employees.

Because "illness is a fact of life," millions of Ohio workers must choose between their jobs or taking care of themselves or a sick relative, Dale Butland, spokesman for the Coalition for Healthy Families, said at a Columbus news conference.

A news conference also was held in Dayton at Mt. Enon Baptist Church.

Butland said 42 percent of Ohio's private sector workers — about 2.2 million people — have no paid sick days.

The coalition plans to turn in petitions in late December with 120,683 valid signatures from registered voters asking the legislature to enact the sick leave legislation. If the legislature doesn't act within four months, the group can gather the same number of signatures to put the issue on the November 2008 ballot, when Ohioans also will be voting for a new president. The group already has gathered 140,000 signatures and plans to have even more before turning them in. Signatures above the required number are needed in case some are thrown out.

Ty Pine, legislative director of the National Federation of Independent Business-Ohio, blasted the plan as a "one-size fits all proposal that doesn't recognize the uniqueness inside the workforce." Mandating paid sick days would require businesses to cut back in other areas and would make Ohio less attractive to new businesses, Pine said.

Information on the campaign is available at: www.sickdays.org