Doctors, Seniors Unite Behind House Health Care Bill
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| Members of CWA 3122 in Florida spread the word about the need for health care reform. | |
In a massive show of support for health care reform, the nation’s largest organization for doctors, the American Medical Association (AMA), today urged the House to pass the bill it begins debate on today, H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act.
The AMA’s historical backing for health care reform follows this morning’s endorsement of the House bill by the largest U.S. advocacy group for seniors, the 40-million member AARP. As we noted yesterday, the bill has many provisions that will immediately benefit to seniors.
The American Cancer Society Action Network also is throwing its support behind the bill, calling it “an exceptional opportunity” to improve our health care system.
These groups are joining a broad coalition, from businesses to civil rights organizations, groups for youth and for seniors, unions, medical professionals and faith groups, all asking Congress to pass this critical bill that will expand health care coverage, cut costs and put patients first. This support is critical, as the closer we get to real reform, the harder the insurance companies and their lobbyists and front groups will fight to block it through scare tactics and falsehoods.
Want to get involved? Click here to call Congress.
Dingell Explains Decades-Long Quest for Health Reform, and Other News
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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.
22,000 L.A. Workers Win Pact with City that Saves Jobs—and More Bargaining News
Some 22,000 Los Angeles workers win pact with city that prevents layoffs—and more bargaining news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
Multiple, City of Los Angeles: The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a pact with the Los Angeles Coalition of City Unions, a group made up of AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions and representing 22,000 city workers. The agreement avoids layoffs and furloughs and will save the city more than $77 million by offering an early retirement plan, reducing the number of hours worked and postponing pay raises until after 2011. A deal with the Los Angeles Police Protective League/IUPA also was approved Friday and will save the city $63 million.
Bye, America
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In this cross-post from the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Steve Capozzola highlights a fun and educational children’s book that shows why it’s important to buy American-made products.
Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Field Coordinator Rachel Bennett Steury has forwarded information on a new book that explains the importance of Keeping it Made in America:
“Bye, America”
Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 688 President Lance Biglin in Mansfield, Ohio, has taken a creative approach to help educate Americans on the importance of buying American. Biglin, together with his wife, has published a children’s book, “Bye, America” to help teach children, and in some cases their parents, why it is important to buy American-made products.
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.
Trumka, Shuler, Holt Baker Hit the Road for Jobs, Fair Economy
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The AFL-CIO’s new leadership team isn’t wasting a second. Hours after the close of the AFL-CIO 26th Constitutional Convention, they’re riding the momentum of this week’s high-energy union gathering with a listening tour across the country.
And they’re starting in Ohio, the center of recent political battles and heart of the tough questions the nation faces about our economic future. The team’s tour continues Sunday and Monday in Atlanta, including a rally outside Wachovia, where Trumka will condemn its predatory financial practices, such as foreclosures. On Monday night and Tuesday, the team travels to New York City where Trumka will issue a strong warning to Wall Street at a press conference outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker held an energetic rally in Cleveland before fanning out across the state to hear from workers and fire up the union movement for the battles ahead.
At the Great Lakes Science Center, Trumka said workers can and must take the lead in reversing the economic crisis that has hit the nation and particularly Ohio. All of us need to hold corporations accountable, not go back to an economy that’s rigged against workers, Trumka said.
The labor movement will do everything in its power to help create good jobs….That’s our most important goal. But when you buy into a community, you become part of the family. You have an obligation. Too many corporations today want to walk away from their communities, even companies that were nurtured right here in these same communities.
We need an economic system in this country that rewards work as well as it rewards investment. We need an economic system that gives everybody a fair opportunity to work hard and succeed.
Union Political Mobilization Has Turned Around America
Four years ago, an anti-worker majority in Congress and the Bush administration were conducting a corporate-funded assault on workers and the programs that supported America. They were implementing policies that steered the economy toward the very wealthiest and leaving everyone else behind. What a difference four years makes. Now in the White House, we have Barack Obama, the first African American president and a supporter of unions and working families and pro-worker majorities in both houses of Congress.
Today, at the AFL-CIO Convention, attendees got a chance to examine the successes of union political mobilization and look forward to continuing the fight to elect pro-worker candidates and passing a pro-worker legislative agenda. Delegates adopted a strong resolution in support of continuing an active political program.
Employee Free Choice Act Backers Out by the Hundreds of Thousands This Summer
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More than 150,000 union members and supporters turned out for events, rallies, parades and picnics in recent days, to show their support for the Employee Free Choice Act, federal legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions and bargain for a better life.
In a letter to the Baton Rouge Advocate, Michael Day, a member of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) in Louisiana, writes that in the face of more than 25,000 acts of discrimination against employees trying to form a union every year, Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act:
I can’t understand a good Democrat having a problem supporting a bill such as the Employee Free Choice Act that levels the playing field between employees and corporations and puts the choice of joining or not joining a union in the hands of working men and women.
I voted for change that I could believe in, not change that I can’t notice.
Ohio Workers Make Voices Heard On Health Care
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Union members in Ohio made it clear yesterday at two meetings that working people want real health care reform and they want it now. These and other workers are fighting back against the lie-filled campaigns by extremist groups—some funded by corporate donations and backed by extremist Republican leaders who are vowing to kill health care reform.
In Cleveland, most of the 450 people at a regular report to constituents meeting hosted by Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge supported health care reform. Outside the hall, more than 115 union members and health care reform activists drowned out about 25 opponents, some singing in German and carrying signs characterizing Obama as “Adolf Hitler.”
Transportation Security Meets with Government Employees, and More Bargaining News
Transportation Security holds first-ever meeting with government employees—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.
NEGOTIATIONS
AFGE, TSA: AFGE leaders met with Transportation Security Administration management in a first-ever formal meeting. “The past eight years with the Bush administration have been an uphill battle and we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said AFGE National President John Gage. “With this meeting, TSA has acknowledged that AFGE is an integral piece of the agency’s relationship with its employees.”
