AFL-CIO, NNU Back New Universal Health Care Bill
Last year, when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, it was a “historic milestone on our path toward a more just society,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, “But we also know that much work is left to be done.”
That work includes moving to a single-payer, universal health care model as called for by the AFL-CIO Convention in 2009 and today in the America Health Security Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).
Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, Holt Baker said:
We in the labor movement have long insisted that health care is a fundamental human right and an important measure of social justice. And for more than 100 years, we have fought for universal health care coverage based on a social insurance model, an approach that has proven to be cost-effective and efficient in countries across the globe and in this country to provide health security for seniors.
Jean Ross, R.N., and co-president of National Nurses United (NNU), says the bill will “create a more just health care system.”
McDermott: ‘Republicans Have Always Hated Medicare’
Today’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Medicare was billed as an examination of how the health care reform law will impact the 45-year-old program that provides health care coverage for nearly 40 million seniors.
But Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) cut right through the smoke screen laid down by committee chairman Rep. Dave Camp (R- Mich.).
While today’s hearings is supposed to be about the new health care law’s impact on Medicare, it is really about taking the first step towards advancing Congressman Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future,” which would transform the Medicare system into a voucher program.
It would kill Medicare as we know it and force seniors to go out and shop around for health insurance with a voucher. Do Republicans really think that insurance companies are going to be jumping up and down to provide senior citizens with health insurance?
The latest attack on the Affordable Care Act comes as no surprise. The new House majority’s first act wasn’t addressing the broken economy or offering job creation proposals. It was a vote to repeal the health care reform law and a vow to take it apart piece by piece and starve it by refusing to appropriate funds. Read the rest of this entry »
House Republicans Block Unemployment Benefits Extension
 |
||||
|
||||
House Republicans today blocked an effort to maintain federal unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, making a lapse in benefits all but certain when they expire at the end of the month.
House Democrats tried to speed the extension through by calling for a suspension of the rules, a procedure which requires a two-thirds majority. Although 258 members—a significant majority—supported the bill, the final vote fell short of the needed margin. The bill, H.R.6419, would have extended UI through February 2011 for those who have exhausted 26 weeks of insurance provided by states. It also would provide 100 percent federal funding to state unemployment programs to cover additional costs.
A total of 143 Republicans and 11 Democrats voted against suspending the rules. Twenty-one Republicans voted for it. Check out the roll call vote here.
Workers Getting Out the Vote as Election Clock Ticks
 |
|
There are only three days to go before an election fueled by the largest-ever recorded amount of secret corporate campaign contributions along with tens of millions of dollars from wealthy extremists and anti-worker Republican candidates. But for workers and their unions, it’s always been about people power, says Gerry Kelly, business manager of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 22 in Omaha, Neb. (see video).
It’s the time to rally our members, get them to the polls to continue to send a message that we can make a difference. We have phone banking….We also do canvassing of neighborhoods. It’s our members contacting our members.
Union activists and leaders around the nation are doing the same thing in these last few days before Nov. 2 to mobilize union family voters in vital races across the nation.
Tanker Contract Delayed Until After Election—50,000 Jobs at Stake
 |
|
When some voters cast their ballots next week, their decisions will determine whether nearly 50,000 jobs in 40 states are created. The U.S. aerospace company Boeing is locked in a competition with European-based EADS, which builds the Airbus, for what is the largest contract in Air Force history. If Boeing’s bid wins, the company will immediately create tens of thousands of good union jobs to build the tanker. The Air Force has delayed the awarding of the $35 billion tanker contract until after the November elections. With some key members of Congress up for re-election, the choices voters in Washington and a few other states make will help determine whether Boeing or EADS gets the tanker.
Washington State Workers Rally to Keep Tanker Made in America
 |
|
In this cross-post, Kathy Cummings, communications director of the Washington State Labor Council, reports on a rally Friday in support of Boeing workers. Boeing is in competition with European-based Airbus for the Air Force’s $35 billion tanker contract.
With as many as 50,000 jobs at stake across the country, members of the Machinists (IAM) and SPEEA/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 2001 rallied along with Washington State’s congressional delegation and a host of community and business leaders Friday in Everett. We rallied in support of Boeing, as the company turned in their bid for the contract to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of air re-fueling tankers.
Unemployment Benefits Extension Moves to Senate
The U.S. Senate is expected to act by the end of this week on a bill approved by the House yesterday that will provide an added 13 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for jobless workers in high unemployment states who have exhausted their benefits without finding new work.
H.R. 3548, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), passed 331-83, with 66 Republicans and 17 Democrats opposing the measure, which will extend benefits in states where unemployment is more than 8.5 percent.
The official unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent and is expected to top 10 percent in the coming months. There are six jobless workers for every job that is open.
Congress Moves to Extend Unemployment Insurance to Hard-Hit States
 |
|
There are six jobless workers for every job that is open. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent and is expected to top 10 percent in the coming months. By the end of this month, some 400,000 workers will run out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits—another 1 million by the end of the year.
Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to throw a lifeline to many workers due to exhaust their UI benefits before finding new work. Legislation to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to workers in high unemployment states is likely to win approval, and the Senate could take it up later this week.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who introduced the bill (H.R. 3548), says the added weeks of benefits will help
hundreds of thousands of Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own in this so-called Great Recession.
