Health Care Action Week: Calling, Writing and Meeting with Congress
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The health care reform fight rolls on this week on Capitol Hill and working families, local and state union activists and leaders are making sure Congress hears from those who aren’t singing from the health insurance industry’s hymnal.
The Senate Finance Committee, which voted down a public health insurance option last week, is expected to vote and pass its bill tomorrow or Wednesday. The next step is to merge that bill with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee legislation that includes a public option and doesn’t tax workers health benefits. That could be on the Senate floor as early as next week. House action will likely come soon after the Senate mover.
On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 125 labor activists and leaders from 27 states will be on the Hill telling lawmakers that a final bill must, like the HELP bill, include a public option and not tax workers’ health care benefits.
247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Without Recovery Package, Would Be Far Worse
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U.S. jobs lost in July totaled 247,000, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data out today, with the unofficial unemployment rate now at 9.4 percent compared with 9.5 percent in June, the first improvement in the pace of job loss since June 2008.
The July jobless rate, while much better than economists predicted, still means 14.5 million U.S. workers are without jobs. And if the underemployed or those who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the broader U.S. unemployment rate stands at 16.3 percent, more than 25 million Americans who need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it. Jobs were lost in all sectors, except for education, health care, leisure and government, which all experienced small gains.
More frightening, the July job figures would have been far worse without the economic recovery package, which has helped to slow the pace of job loss to less than half of what it was just six months ago. From May to July, job losses averaged 331,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November to April.
Write Letter, Win Pen: A Retiree’s Prescription for Health Care Reform
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Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara J. Easterling encourages union retirees to contact their local newspapers about health care—and get a free union-made Retirees with the Write Stuff pen.
As Congress begins to vote on health care reform, we must all make our voices heard. One of the most effective ways to do this is by writing a letter to the editor.
In many newspapers, the Letters to the Editor page is the most widely read section. Not only can you help educate others in your community, but you can get noticed by savvy elected officials who keep a close eye on these letters to gauge the mood of their constituents.
Retirees with the Write Stuff is simple: Write letter, win pen. If a newspaper runs your letter about health care or any other retiree topic, send us a copy and you will receive a free, union-made Retirees with the Write Stuff pen.
Hundreds of Nurses Rally on Capitol Hill in National Day of Action
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| 500 nurses rallied for health care reform Wednesday on Capitol Hill. |
Here’s a great report on nurses rallying for health care reform in Washington, D.C., from Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally.
Spirits and energy ran high today as hundreds of nurses from all over the country gathered to participate in a National RN Day of Action in Washington, D.C., adding their voices to the nationwide demands for comprehensive health care reform.
The day’s activities included an animated morning nurses’ conference, followed by a march to Upper Senate Park that gained power along the way, gathering 500 nurses and another 500 patient advocates.
Speakers at the rally included Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC); Ann Converso, RN, president of the United American Nurses (UAN); Gregory Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE); Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.); Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); and M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell.
Educating Timothy Geithner: The Congressional Review Panel on Capitol Hill
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The American people worry about how their $590 billion in taxpayer money is being spent in the big bank bailout—and, on Capitol Hill today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was told why. In his first appearance before the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), which has spent nearly six months reviewing the expenditures of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), COP chairwoman Elizabeth Warren told Geithner:
People are angry that even if they have paid their bills on time consistently and never missed a payment, their TARP-assisted banks are unilaterally raising their interest rates or slashing their credit lines….People are angry when they read headlines of record foreclosures because even if they aren’t personally facing trouble with their mortgages, they see their own property worth less and their communities declining as a result of the foreclosures all around them.
I appreciate your repeatedly stated commitment to transparency and accountability…but more remains to be done. People need to understand why you are making the choices you are making.
Take Our 2009 Health Care for America Survey
Can this patient be saved?
The patient is the U.S. health care system, and the answer is being debated right now on Capitol Hill and across the nation.
Now you have an opportunity to make your voice heard and help shape health care reform to meet the needs of working families.
The AFL-CIO and Working America want to know about your experiences with America’s health care system—what’s working, what isn’t, what costs too much and more.
We’ve launched the 2009 Health Care for America Survey and urge you to give us your input here.
Tallied results of the survey, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and its 2.5 million-member community affiliate Working America, will be shared with national and state leaders and the media. Congress, the administration and the media are hearing plenty about health care reform from drug makers and insurance companies—they need to hear from working families, too.
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Behold, the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2008 award.
For those outside the United States, this is the image of our nation:
U.S. Economy in Crisis: Following eviction, Detective Robert Kole must ensure residents have moved out of their home in Cleveland, Ohio, 26 March 2008.
VA Nurses: One Step Closer to Restored Bargaining Rights
Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, says the organization applauds moves to return bargaining rights to Veterans Affairs nurses. RNs Working Together is a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, reached out to right a serious wrong when they recently introduced crucial legislation (S. 362 and H.R. 949) to restore the collective bargaining rights of VA health care professionals, including registered nurses.
For the past several years, health care professionals have been scrambling to meet soaring patient care demands from two wars and an aging population. Meanwhile, the professionals who provide the hands-on care to our veterans have seen their ability to have an effective voice in the workplace eroded by the Bush administration, intensifying the shortage in VA hospitals. The legislation sponsored by Rockefeller and Filner aims to reverse that trend.
What Happens When Your TV Goes Blank?
Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, points out that even though millions of people do not have the capacity to receive digital television, Congress blocked bills that would have delayed the switch from analog.
On Feb. 17, 2009, millions of America’s workers and their families, including rural, low-income and elderly citizens, will be left with blank TV screens. Don’t call the repairman. Contact your members of Congress.
Feb. 17 is the date that television stations stop using analog signals to broadcast and switch to digital. If you have an analog TV set and use an antenna or rabbit ears, you must buy a converter box, a digital TV or subscribe to cable or satellite service to receive programming—at a time when the public has fewer resources than ever to buy the necessary equipment.
Dockworkers Ask: Are Your Union Pension Funds Safe?
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| Too many fat cats trying to steal workers’ pensions. |
Jennifer Sargent, Northwest communications coordinator at the ILWU, sent us this from San Francisco.
In the current economic free fall, it’s wise to know where your pension funds are invested and whether they are as safe as you’d think. Union leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and other union leaders are warning unions about a scheme that cost 60,000 Dutch dockworkers more than $1.7 billion in pension funds that had nothing to do with a sinking economy—and everything to do with a corporate sleight-of-hand.
To highlight the issue, more than 100 international protesters from labor and community groups rallied Jan. 12 at San Francisco’s landmark Transamerica Pyramid building. Union leaders from the ILWU, Teamsters and the Dutch dockworkers’ union FNV slammed the alleged looting of more than 60,000 Dutch dockworkers’ pension benefits by Dutch insurance giant Aegon, the parent company of Transamerica. The big corporation recently launched a plan to collect a huge hunk of cash from U.S. taxpayers under the bailout program but suddenly dropped the scheme last month.
