Channel: In the States
Bill Moyer’s Journal Focuses on Health Care and Nurses’ Role in Reform
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Intensive care nurse Geri Jenkins says that a 67-year-old male patient with a history of four heart attacks, a quadruple bypass and an implanted defibrillator and about to take a high stress job "would be uninsurable for having a pre-existing condition."
Unless, of course, he was Dick Cheney and about to become the vice president of the United States in 2001. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), says Cheney
can have the choice of doctors. He can go to any hospital. He can have excellent standard of care. And he's alive today because of it. And there are a lot of people who aren't….We, as the public, pay for Dick Cheney's care. Why not—why is the government not providing the same type of care to all Americans?
499th Labor Candidate Victory in New Jersey
New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech describes yesterday's municipal election victories by union members across the state.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO is proud to announce the victories of four union members who were elected to public office yesterday, bringing the total number of rank-and-file union members elected to public office in New Jersey to 499 since 1997.
Mississippi Victory Sends Another Pro-Working Family Member to Congress
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For the fourth time this year, an AFL-CIO-endorsed candidate has won a special congressional election. Last night, Travis Childers won a striking (54 percent to 48 percent) victory in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District (CD), by emphasizing the issues that matter most to working families.
The Mississippi AFL-CIO endorsed Childers, a Democrat, for the seat left open by the appointment of Republican Rep. Roger Wicker to the Senate. Childers pledged in his campaign to support affordable health care for working families and to fight bad trade deals that would cost Mississippi jobs. He also pledged to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Colorado Activists Launch Ballot Campaign to Prevent Corporate Fraud, Protect Jobs
Colorado working families yesterday hit the streets, gathering the first of the 76,000 signatures needed to put what The New York Times calls the "nation's toughest corporate fraud law" on the November ballot.
Union, community, environmental and other activist members of the Protect Colorado's Future coalition also began collecting signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot, a measure to protect workers from being fired for no reason.
The corporate fraud measure would make CEOs and top execs personally liable if they commit fraud or condone it by not reporting it. It establishes both civil penalties and criminal—i.e., jail time.
Pennsylvania Union Members Get Ready for the Election
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Union activists from across the state came together in Philadelphia in recent days for a two-day training session in getting out the vote as part of the union movement’s Labor 2008 political mobilization program.
Members of more than a dozen unions participated in presentations that overviewed key working family issues like health care, the economy and Sen. John McCain’s anti-labor voting record. Attendees engaged in dynamic discussions about effective communication, worksite visits and activist recruitment.
The Philadelphia training is one of a series of Labor 2008 trainings that have taken place around the country in key states like Missouri, Ohio and Colorado.
Yacht Party Republicans Sail Away Tax Free in California
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Here's one from the "just-when-you-think-you've-seen-it-all" file.
California is facing a $20 billion budget shortfall. Teachers are getting pink slips. Health care, social service, education and other budgets are being slashed to the bone. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) warns that all Californians should get ready for some budget belt-tightening.
Well, almost all Californians.
Republican legislators twice this year blocked moves to close a tax loophole for their super-wealthy friends—the ones who just can't live without yachts or jet planes. The loophole let's the uber-rich buy their floating and flying palaces tax free!
Union Member-to-Member Walks Kick Off AFL-CIO 2008 Election Mobilization
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Hundreds of AFL-CIO union members in three states kicked off the first round of door-to-door, member-to-member walks this past weekend as part of the AFL-CIO's massive get-out-the-vote political mobilization program. They distributed fliers and educated union members about the real record of Sen. John McCain, including McCain’s health care plan, which would tax health benefits and could lead to millions being pushed out of their existing coverage.
State federations and central labor councils in Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin organized the walks, part of the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 program to educate and energize union members to get to the polls and vote. More walks are set around the country this Saturday, May 17, involving hundreds of union members in more than a dozen states.
Massachusetts AFL-CIO Program Awards $1 Million in Scholarships
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Higher education is no longer a far off dream parents once had for their children but a necessity in today’s economy—and an expensive necessity at that. Recent studies show workers with a college degree earn 45 percent more than those with a high school diploma. Yet college tuition costs are at an all-time high, making it harder for working families to afford it.
The union movement has historically been a strong supporter of educating workers to create a better life for themselves, their families and communities. Many unions, state federations and central local bodies and labor groups sponsor scholarship programs, including Union Privilege. Click here to learn more about Union Privilege’s scholarship program.
The union movement also created the National Labor College, the nation’s only accredited institution of higher learning dedicated to educating union members.
McCain to 14-Year-Old Girl: ‘No Fair Pay for You’
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Sen. John McCain is used to getting softball questions from his fans in the media. At his town hall meeting yesterday in Michigan, however, he finally took a tough, smart question from an unexpected source.
When a 14-year-old girl attending the meeting got to ask a question of a presidential candidate, she took the opportunity to ask why he skipped out on voting on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
McCain said he agreed with the minority of senators who filibustered the bill, which would give targets of workplace discrimination the chance to fight for equal pay. He claimed it wouldn’t help women. Here’s what he had to say:
I don't believe that this would do anything to help the rights of women, except maybe help trial lawyers and others in that profession.
In Louisiana, Union-Endorsed Cazayoux Wins U.S. House Seat
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Don Cazayoux will be heading to Congress as the next representative from Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District (CD) following an upset win in Saturday’s special election.
Cazayoux, a Democrat and former state House member, won the endorsement of the Louisiana AFL-CIO and stressed working-family issues in his successful campaign for the U.S. House seat.
The 6th CD is a traditionally Republican district: In 2004, President Bush won it with a 59 percent showing, compared with 40 percent for John Kerry. Cazayoux, with the help of union members, defied expectations and defeated Republican Woody Jenkins 49 percent to 46 percent on Saturday.
