Alliance for Retired Americans Fights for Reform, and Other Health Care News
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Priscilla King, an Alliance for Retired Americans member from New Hampshire, got the chance to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) for yesterday’s unveiling of the House’s historic health care reform bill.
King noted that one of the many ways the bill would improve our health system is by closing the “donut hole” that affects seniors who gets prescription drugs through Medicare.
The current structure of Medicare’s drug coverage leaves a $1,700 gap if your costs are more than $2,830 a year. King and her husband have been victims of that flawed policy and have gone into debt to pay for the drugs they need.
AFSCME Members Make ‘House Calls for Health Care’
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Across the country this weekend, AFSCME nurses and community leaders made house calls, getting their neighbors mobilized to pass health care reform that provides affordable coverage to everyone. These nurses and volunteers asked the people they visited to contact their senators and House members and demand health care reform that really works.
Clad in green scrubs, the AFSCME members went door to door in key states, including Arkansas, Nebraska, Maine, Ohio, North Dakota, Louisiana, Indiana and Delaware. Working America members also took part in door-to-door canvasses for health care reform.
Valentina Zamora-Arreola, a registered nurse in Arkansas, said that health care workers see every day the need for a fairer system:
One of the most important things that we want to see is that healthcare reform is done right. We want to make sure that nurses have their voice out there. We deal with the people when they are sick and we want to make sure that we are looking at healthcare reform options and that we have a public health option.
Workers Need Employee Free Choice to Get Ahead
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Here are two great recent pieces on the need for the Employee Free Choice Act, proposed federal legislation to give workers the tools they need to build a better life for themselves and a strong economy for everyone.
Writing at the Drum Major Institute, Amy Traub says that just investing in training and education isn’t enough to help workers earn their way out of the economic slump and into the middle class. They need the freedom to form a union:
Education alone won’t solve the economic problems underlying the middle-class squeeze. If it were, college graduates would be doing better. And while educated workers are more likely than those without a degree to enjoy a middle-class standard of living, wages for most college graduates have grown sluggishly in recent years and their access to employer-provided health care and pensions has dropped. And then there are the tens of millions of Americans who work at jobs that don’t require a college degree.
Employee Free Choice Act: Op-Ed Highlights
Here are two great recent op-eds on the case for the Employee Free Choice Act.
In The Hill, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard remembers the late Crystal Lee Sutton, the inspiration for the film “Norma Rae” who passed away last weekend. Sutton’s story—attempting to form a union and bargain for a better life but facing harassment and illegal firing—shows why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, Gerard says. In particular, he notes, we must remember how, after the great personal sacrifice and victory by Sutton and her co-workers, they were still denied the ability to bargain for a fair contract:
The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) won the right to represent the workers. That’s what people remember from the film. A great victory. What they don’t know is that J.P. Stevens officials didn’t sign a labor contract with the union until a decade later.
That’s why the Employee Free Choice Act must pass. Not only do companies threaten, harass and illegally fire workers like Sutton who try to form unions, but even when workers finally do win union representation, corporations wrongly hold up negotiations to deny workers their first labor contract—as J. P. Stevens did.
Jobless Workers Can’t Feed Their Families While States Sit on $3 Billion in UI Funds
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With unemployment at its highest levels in decades, it’s unbelievable that some $3.1 billion in unemployment insurance (UI) benefits included in the federal economic recovery package is not being spent because 23 states have not yet revised state rules covering jobless benefits.
Today’s USA TODAY reports that nearly 350,000 out-of-work Americans could get benefits if all those states revamp their unemployment systems to qualify for money that is included in the federal stimulus package.
In 11 of the states, Republican governors or legislatures have refused to modify the rules governing unemployment insurance to qualify for about $1.7 billion in stimulus funds. The other 12 states have made only some of the changes, not applied for the funds or not taken legislative votes on the changes. Although the states have until 2011 to change the laws, the reality is that many states need the money now and the workers really need it now.
Op-Eds Highlight Support of Employee Free Choice Act
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Here are four great op-eds from around the country that explain why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
In Pennsylvania’s Centre Daily Times, Penn State professor Paul Clark looks into the history of workers’ freedom to form unions over the past several decades and concludes that the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to restoring balance in the workplace and a healthy economy:
This legislation is designed to reform our nation’s primary labor law and re-establish the system of checks and balances between unions and management that historically has proved so beneficial to our nation…
Its passage would move us closer to economic recovery and toward a more equitable society.
Two Unions in Hawaii Seek to Block Governor from Ordering Furloughs—and More Bargaining News
Two unions in Hawaii seek to block the governor from ordering furloughs for thousands of state workers—and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
Multiple, BART: Two of the larger BART unions, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and SEIU Local 1021, agreed to extend their labor contracts beyond the June 30 expiration through July 9 at midnight. AFSCME, which represents white-collar workers at BART, expects to sign a similar extension. You can get real-time updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/realbartworkers.
In the Field: High Momentum for Employee Free Choice Act
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Reports are piling in from around the country from union members and their allies in the faith, civil rights, small business and environmental communities who are helping advance the Employee Free Choice Act and workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
In Maine, the Sierra Club, along with Bill Murphy, director of the University of Maine’s Bureau of Labor Education, held a press conference to announce that the environmental community is strongly in favor of Employee Free Choice, which they say will ensure workers have a voice in how businesses operate in their communities.
In Fort Collins, Colo., the Rev. Daniel Klawitter of Interfaith Worker Justice, led a community meeting in support of the Employee Free Choice Act that helped raise funds for an area food bank. Union members and members of Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, joined him in supporting the food bank and the freedom to form unions, which Klawitter said was “the most effective anti-poverty program” available to workers.
Grassroots Action Around the Country for Employee Free Choice
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| The fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act continues in Arkansas and other states. Below, Tim Strong, president of CWA Local 4900 in Indiana, explains the bill. |
As the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act takes place in Washington, D.C., union members and allies are hard at work around the country to help pass this critical legislation to level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.
At the Huffington Post, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff reports that members of the Arkansas Conference of Black Mayors are joining civil rights leaders, religious leaders, small business owners and union members from across the state in asking their senators to support workers by voting for the Employee Free Choice Act.
In North Carolina, Larry Murray of the Steelworkers (USW) says the fight for employee free choice is a top priority throughout his union and the entire union movement because its passage means an economy that works for everyone:
“The Employee Free Choice Act is vitally important because on top of the poor economic situation, the playing field is not level. Companies have an enormous advantage in the current system.”
Faith Leaders, Working Women Take Action to Support Employee Free Choice Act
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This morning, 20 religious leaders in Hammond, Ind., met with union members from the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor to talk about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act and sign a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh asking him to support workers’ freedom to form unions.
Today’s breakfast is just a small part of a national effort on behalf of faith communities in support of the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members, religious leaders, Working America members and a wide range of allies have made their voices heard with prayer vigils and rallies at Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s offices all around Arkansas, including Little Rock, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Texarkana and El Dorado. They’ve also held vigils in Indiana, including events in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, as well as Omaha, Neb., and Missoula, Mont.
