Working Families Take Health Care Reform Message to Capitol Hill
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With the Senate poised to consider comprehensive health care reform soon, more than 100 workers and activists from two dozen states converged on Capitol Hill yesterday to remind lawmakers that the union members and working families who worked so hard on their campaigns last fall are the same people who strongly back health care reform.
They delivered more than 42,000 personally written letters from members of unions and Working America calling on Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation.
California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski was encouraged after his meetings with members of the Golden State delegation. He said both senators and a large number of representatives, including Blue Dog Democrats, are coming out in support of health care reform.
San Francisco’s Public Option a Model for America’s Health Care Reform
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Steve Smith, director of communications at the California Labor Federation, highlights a real-life example of public option at work.
For most working families, the idea of a health care public option is just a notion. But in San Francisco, it’s reality. And it works.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski and San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson at City Hall yesterday to urge Congress to pass health care reform with a strong public option, touting the success of the city’s universal health care system.
The “Healthy San Francisco” program, which was passed with critical support from labor, is a one-of-a-kind example of a public option of health insurance. Low-income workers are able to access subsidized health insurance while those with higher incomes are given an option to buy into a public health insurance option at reduced costs than they would face in the private market.
Unions, Allies: Once in a Lifetime Opportunity to Create Jobs of the Future
California Labor Federation communications organizer Rebecca Greenberg reports on the organization’s Building Workforce Partnerships conference.
Economic stimulus, green jobs, energy efficiency…these are terms workers have been hearing quite a bit about lately. This week in San Jose, Calif., unions, government, business and environmentalists joined leading economists at the California Labor Federation’s annual Building Workforce Partnerships conference to address the potential of jointly addressing economic security, energy independence and government stimulus to build a fundamentally stronger economy for America’s workers.
A Renewed Covenant with America: The Employee Free Choice Act
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Steve Smith, director of communications at the California Labor Federation, describes one of many recent actions in California and around the country in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
A broad coalition of California interfaith leaders gathered at a West Los Angeles Wal-Mart this week to demand an end to the Wal-Martization of America and to support a renewed covenant with America’s workers through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Nationwide, dozens of faith groups have joined with environmental, community and academic organizations in support of the legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.
Republican Senators Say They Will Hold Up Solis Nomination
With unemployment at the highest level in decades, Senate Republicans are saying they will hold a vote on the nomination of a key Cabinet member in the fight to restore jobs in this ailing economy. Some conservative lawmakers are vowing to hold up a vote on Rep. Hilda Solis’ (D-Calif.) confirmation as labor secretary because of their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, which she supports.
Solis, who comes from a union family, has been a champion of workers for more than 15 years combined in Congress and the California legislature, where she was the first Latina elected to the state Senate.
Solis backers have created two Facebook groups in support of her nomination: ”Americans for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor,” and “1,000,000 Strong For Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor“—and each has some 300 members who signed up in the past few days. The groups give information on how to contact your senators to urge that Solis be confirmed. Sign up for both is open to any Facebook member.
Confirmation Hearings Today on Solis for Labor Secretary
As Congress holds confirmation hearings on the nomination of Hilda Solis as secretary of labor this morning, we will get our first extended look at how she plans to return the U.S. Department of Labor to its primary mission of protecting the lives, wages and rights of working people.
Solis, a four-term U.S. House member from California’s 32nd District, was tapped last month by President-elect Barack Obama to be his secretary of labor. As today’s hearings before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee get under way, we will bring you updates.
As Obama said repeatedly throughout the campaign, the Bush administration and outgoing Labor Secretary Elaine Chao spent eight years attacking workers’ rights, strong workplace health and safety rules and unions while they carried the water for Big Business. Obama summed up the Chao regime this way:
Remember, this is supposed to be the Department Labor, not the Department of Management.
Arnie’s Next Pay Cut Plan: Kill Overtime
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has come up with a cruel way to solve the Golden State’s budget impasse—take away the eight-hour day and cut overtime pay for private-sector workers. Those changes to basic workplace protections are part of his so-called compromise budget released this week.
His move followed the executive order he issued July 31, cutting the pay of some 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour and laying off thousands of state workers. The pay cut is now in the courts and workers will receive their full August pay.
