Working America, Union Members Deliver for Health Care Reform
 |
||||
|
||||
In Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Delaware, Arkansas and Indiana this week, Working America members and union volunteers are sending a message to their senators: You need to pass real health care reform.
Working America and union members delivered thousands of handwritten letters to senators in these key states. On Tuesday in Louisiana, Wednesday in Arkansas and yesterday in four other states, these activists brought more than 15,000 letters to their senators in support of health care reform that expands coverage, doesn’t raise costs for middle-class families because it doesn’t tax their benefits and includes a public health insurance option to help hold insurance companies accountable.
You can join the fight and demand a Senate debate on health care reform here.
Dingell Explains Decades-Long Quest for Health Reform, and Other News
 |
|
Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has been fighting for health care reform for more than 50 years, and he’s seen the situation become even more dire over the past decade. In a great new op-ed, he explains the hard truths of our broken system and why we can’t wait any longer for health care reform:
This is not a time to give into fear….Reform is neither easy nor cheap, but the cost of inaction is far greater—in terms of lives lost, quality of life, and dollars. Make no mistake, if we don’t reduce costs we face certain economic disaster.
I will tell my fellow members, when you explain a vote like this one to the generations that live with the consequences of these decisions there is no poll, not even an election result, that can justify your decision. You will be asked about this vote until the day you die. Years from now, none of these things we put so much stock in now will matter. All anyone will want to know is: did you do the right thing when history called on you? It is time for health care reform. We can’t afford to wait. We can’t afford to think small. We can’t afford to fail.
Maine Union Members Tell Snowe to Support a Public Option, and More Health Care News
 |
||||
|
||||
When Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) suggested she would block health care reform if it included a public option, Maine workers took action: The Maine AFL-CIO put its convention on hold so attendees could call her and tell her that a public option is essential to make reform work. (Recent polls in Maine suggest Mainers strongly support a public option.)
Here are some of the latest developments in the fight for real health care reform:
- Momentum is building for a public option in final bills being crafted in the U.S. Senate and the House. This is a critical time to contact your senators and representatives.
- Big companies like Wal-Mart are lobbying hard to exempt the coverage they provide from health care reform. That would leave tens of millions of workers stuck in the same high-cost, no-guarantee system we have today.
- 55 members of Congress who oppose giving America the choice of a public option are actually getting government-administered health care through Medicare.
AFSCME Members Make ‘House Calls for Health Care’
 |
||||
|
||||
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.
Maine Union Members Rally for Employee Free Choice
On Friday in Portland, Maine, dozens of union members and allies took to the street to demand justice for workers and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members held a 23-minute vigil in Portland’s Lobsterman Park to highlight how a worker is discriminated against because of his or her union activity every 23 minutes. Union members rallied in support of restoring the freedom to form unions and bargain and asked their members of Congress, especially Sen. Olympia Snowe, to vote for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Maine AFL-CIO President Ed Gorham said:
It is a travesty that the workers of Maine have their right to association systematically denied by a process that provides no protection from harassment and intimidation. We are here to remind Senator Snowe that we need the Employee Free Choice Act, for our families and our communities.
Working Women Speak Out for Employee Free Choice
Here are three great op-ed pieces from around the country—Colorado, Pennsylvania and Maine—that highlight why the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to working women in this tough economy.
Linda Meric, the executive director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, writes a great op-ed about the need for Employee Free Choice in the Denver Post. Meric notes the advantages that the chance to form a union offers to women in Colorado and around the country:
The Employee Free Choice Act is one sure way to address this gender-based pay gap. Unionization can provide important economic security for low-wage Colorado women and their families.
The benefits of union membership for women in low-wage occupations are even greater. Among those working in the 15 lowest-paying occupations, union members not only earned more than their non-union counterparts, they were also 26 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 23 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan than those who were not members of a union….
Op-Ed Highlights: Making the Economy Work for Everyone
Here are a few highlights from newspapers around the country that make the case for why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Writing in Politico, former Clinton administration adviser Paul Begala explains how our system for forming unions is broken and why Employee Free Choice is necessary to give workers a shot at joining the middle class. Contrasting the stories of real workers with that of Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, Begala says:
“For eight years under the GOP, economic policy gave CEOs such as Ken Lewis the gold mine, while giving hard-working, middle-class Americans…the shaft. President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress were elected to change that, and protecting employees from corporate abuses is part of the change we need. That’s what the Employee Free Choice Act will do.”
Nurses Protest Nationwide Against Sick Leave Cuts, and More Bargaining News
Nurses hold national protest against attempts to cut their sick leave—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 1,100 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
Multiple, Tenet: Registered nurses and hospital workers at facilities owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) and SEIU, organized a national protest to oppose attempts to cut their access to sick leave. “Every day, we are on the front lines for responding to health threats like the H1N1 virus. It’s basic common sense that nurses and other caregivers should not go to work if we’re sick ourselves. But these cuts will make it harder for us to take care of ourselves. It’s not too late for Tenet to rethink and redo this by restoring our extended sick leave,” said Sherri Stoddard, a member of CNA/NNOC.
Op-Eds Highlight Support of Employee Free Choice Act
 |
|
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.
Maine GOP State Legislator Supports Employee Free Choice Act, and Other Highlights from Around the Country
Guess who’s joining the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act in Maine?
It’s state Rep. Jim Campbell, a Republican who is defying the expectations of pundits and corporate shills by supporting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. He has appeared at public events around the state and written in local news outlets to show his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Here’s what Campbell says about the need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance to rebuilding the economy:
Common-sense solutions should be used to create good jobs that can support a family and put money back into our economy. Historically, no institution has been as effective at improving the quality of life for working families as membership in a union. Union members earn better wages, have better health care coverage and can count on a more secure retirement than nonunion workers.
Read the rest of this entry »
