The Time Is Now for Health Care Reform, Safe Workplaces
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The nation’s health care system is broken and now is the time to act to gain real health care reform. With a vote on health care reform coming soon to Congress, delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention today passed two strong resolutions to provide quality affordable health care and another to ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
They also took immediate action on the floor to mobilize against the insurance industry that is profiting by denying health care to patients who need it and raising premiums.
Both AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) told the convention the Senate will vote on a health care bill in the next few weeks. After passing the resolutions, delegates signed pledges to work for real health care reform when they get back home. Many used their cell phones to call their locals to march on the major health insurers between Sept. 22 and Oct. 2. AFT President Randi Weingarten, who was presiding over the debate, called the chief lobbyist for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, her home local, while on the podium, and with the entire convention listening, convinced him to hold an action.
The mobilization is part of an AFL-CIO campaign to hold insurers accountable, Trumka said,
for denying care and shutting people out and using our members’ premium dollars.
Hughes Named Chairman of New York Federal Reserve
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Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, was named chairman of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York today. Hughes, who has served as acting chairman of the board of directors since May, was named chairman for the remainder of 2009.
Hughes says his experience on the board has been a “great experience,” which has allowed him to see firsthand how the nation’s economy really works.
Says Hughes:
“My job is to do whatever I can to make sure working families are considered when decisions are made.”
Hughes, a 40-year member of the Electrical Workers (IBEW, has led the New York State federation since 1999.
More Die on Job in New York State Because of Bush’s Safety and Health Cuts
Eight years of Bush administration cutbacks in funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), particularly for an adequate inspection force, puts New York state workers at greater risk of dying on the job, a new report reveals.
“Dying for Work in New York,” released yesterday, also says immigrant, minority and nonunion workers are at greater risk on the job. The report was sponsored by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York City Central Labor Council.
SMWIA Member Gets Missouri Labor Post; N.Y. State AFL-CIO Endorses Candidate with Union Background
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Carla Buschjost, a member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 36, in St. Louis, is the new director of the Division of Labor Standards in the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR). Meanwhile in New York, Scott Murphy, a candidate in the special election for the 20th Congressional District seat, won the backing of the New York State AFL-CIO this weekend. Murphy is the son of a postal worker and a teacher.
Appointed late last month, Buschjost will oversee the division’s worker safety sections as well as the state’s child labor and prevailing wage laws. Says Buschjost:
I am passionate about stronger enforcement of laws that create stronger and safer workplaces.
After Eight Years of Bush, Can OSHA be Fixed?
The Bush administration left a lot of wreckage in its wake. The crumbling economy, the home foreclosure crisis and a broken health care system are getting most of the recent headlines and calls for immediate repair.
But for the men and women who get up and go to work every day—and want to come home alive and without injury—there is something else the Bush administration trashed that needs fixing and fixing fast—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
