Archive for July, 2009
IUOE Project Shows Union Workers Ready for Green Jobs
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Many of the green jobs of “the future” already exist and are performed by union members who make energy-efficient products and teach others how to conserve energy.
Take Operating Engineers Local 49, which represents workers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Members of the local recently built a wind turbine farm in the small town of Chandler, Minn. Crane operators from the local union hoisted the turbines into place as other members dug trenches for the transmission lines and did the grading.
Glen Johnson, business manager for Local 49, tells the Operating Engineers (IUOE) magazine, International Operating Engineer:
We’re green. We’ve been green a long time. When our operators are building roads and bridges, key environmental factors must be met.
Op-Ed Highlights: Making the Economy Work for Everyone
Here are a few highlights from newspapers around the country that make the case for why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Writing in Politico, former Clinton administration adviser Paul Begala explains how our system for forming unions is broken and why Employee Free Choice is necessary to give workers a shot at joining the middle class. Contrasting the stories of real workers with that of Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, Begala says:
“For eight years under the GOP, economic policy gave CEOs such as Ken Lewis the gold mine, while giving hard-working, middle-class Americans…the shaft. President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress were elected to change that, and protecting employees from corporate abuses is part of the change we need. That’s what the Employee Free Choice Act will do.”
Hightower: Unions the Escalator to the Middle Class
Author and radio commentator Jim Hightower paid a visit to Colorado this week where he met with members of Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 7 as part of an Employee Free Choice Act mobilization campaign.
Hightower said the freedom to form unions and bargain is crucial to a healthy and fair economy.
Unions are the escalator to the middle class. Unions are the key to America’s productivity. Unions are a real hope for real change—fairness, justice, opportunity.
Hightower told CWA members they need to get involved and get active if the Employee Free Choice Act is to become law:
Now, we’ve put the Employee Free Choice Act on the table…are we going to give working people a chance again? This is when you have got to stand up.
Check out video of Hightower’s speech here.
What Is at Stake for Retirees in Health Care Debate?
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Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling lays out the case for reform of Medicare, which turned 44 this week, in this cross-post from the Huffiington Post.
As we honor Medicare’s success—it has reduced senior poverty by two-thirds—it is also an opportunity for retirees to become more aware of what is at stake for them in health care reform.
The Alliance for Retired Americans, a progressive grassroots advocacy organization, held 30 events around the country to mark Medicare’s birthday and advance a pro-retiree agenda for this year’s health care debate.
What can the health care bill do to help current and future retirees? Here are a few ideas:
- Help Early Retirees. More than 5 million Americans ages 55-64 do not have health insurance. People in this age group should be able to buy in to Medicare so they can see a doctor more often, especially for preventive care.
- Close the Donut Hole. The “donut hole” coverage gap in Medicare Part D means that each year about one in four seniors will spend several months paying full price for their prescriptions while still having to pay their premiums.
Attacks on Medicare: Desperate Attempt to Gut Health Care Reform
This might come as a shock to the 44 million Americans who receive their health care coverage through Medicare, but according to two Republican House members, Medicare has “never done anything to make people more healthy,” and it has had the biggest “negative effect” on health care than anything else in the past 44 years.
Step back from Medicare’s 44th birthday cake (click here for more on the program’s four-decades-plus success) and let that gibberish from two of the charter members of the “let’s-kill-health care reform” caucus sink in. (While we’re doing that, a tip of the hat to Jason Rosenbaum at Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) for exposing this nonsense).
You can draw two conclusions. First, Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Tom Price (R-Ga.) are just plain out of touch with reality.
Pennsylvania Union Members Donate Time, Labor, Money to Help Children
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Union members care about their communities, and one of the biggest ways they show it is through the Community Services Network, which provides services and assistance to those in need. Last week, the Pennsylvania union movement showed its heart when members dedicated a new union-built picnic pavilion at the Auberle Center, a faith-based agency dedicated to helping abused, neglected and troubled children and families.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker was on hand to dedicate the pavilion, constructed free-of-charge by members and apprentices of the Carpenters union. Some of the youth at the center helped build the pavilion and two have asked to join the Carpenter’s apprenticeship program, says Joe Delale, community services liaison for the Allegheny County (Pa.) Labor Council.
Holt Baker praised the union members’ generosity:
I am reminded of a quote from Bobby Kennedy who said:
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
It is in small acts that greatness is truly borne, and the work you have done here today reflects that greatness.
Health Care Reform Will Benefit Small Business, Produce Big Savings
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Two studies by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) find that the House health care reform bill (H.R. 3200) would pay dividends for small businesses and other groups, and costs incurred by the federal government would help reduce total health spending over time.
“Health Care Reform—Big Benefits for Small Business” explains the many ways in which small businesses will benefit from health care reforms. Only 35 percent of businesses employing fewer than 10 workers offer health insurance, and those that do usually pass on a higher share of the cost to workers than do larger businesses, the report says.
A key problem is that small businesses typically pay more for health insurance because of the way policies are sold. Reforms that would create more competition among insurers and reduce their administrative costs “would significantly reduce the cost small businesses incur providing health insurance,” EPI said.
Why Young Workers Need Employee Free Choice
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In a great new Point of View guest column for the AFL-CIO, Martin Bennett, a history instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College and a member of the North Bay Labor Council executive board, looks at the state of young workers in America and says that the Employee Free Choice Act is necessary to ensure a secure economic future for the rising generation. (Also, watch for the results of our national survey on young workers—their economic well-being, work life, aspirations and concerns—prior to Labor Day.)
Bennett notes that young workers are particularly vulnerable to the economic crisis:
- Median annual earnings for young men (25-34) with a high school education declined by 29 percent between 1975 and 2005, and decreased by 10 percent for young women who are high school graduates. The drop of earnings was even steeper for young African American and Latino workers with only a high school education.
- Median earnings for young men with a bachelor’s degree decreased 2 percent between 1975 and 2005, while the earnings for college-educated women increased slightly by 10 percent.
- One in three young workers between the ages of 18 and 34 do not have health insurance—the highest rate by far for all age groups.
Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan Already Created, Saved 720,000 Jobs
President Obama’s economic recovery package created or saved some 720,000 jobs in the second quarter, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Although the economy continued to shrink, the effect would have been much worse without the recovery act, says EPI economist Josh Bivens.
The Commerce Department is expected to announce tomorrow that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by about 1.5 percent in the second quarter, one-fourth the rate in the first three months of the year. Without the recovery legislation, the rate would have been around 4.5 percent, Bivens says. That translates into about 720,000 jobs, he adds.
Dionne Warwick: ‘Fair Pay for Air Play’ About Economic Justice
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Little did the public know that when they heard Dionne Warwick sing, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and other hits on the radio for the past four decades, none of the money made off the airplay found its way to her—it all went in the radio station owners’ pockets.
Now Warwick and other performers have a chance to finally get what they are due—but Big Radio CEOs are resorting to personal attacks in an effort to derail legislation that would pay performers like Warwick when their music is played on the radio.
Writing today on the Huffington Post, Warwick says the Civil Rights for Musicians Act (H.R. 848), dubbed “Fair Pay for Air Play,”
is about economic justice for African American artists. It’s about what’s right. And it’s about time.
