Texans Rally for Reform—and Other Health Care News
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More than 3,000 union members and allies crowded the streets of Austin, Texas, on Saturday to show their support for health care reform.
The demonstrators gathered at the State Capitol to hear from workers, community leaders and lawmakers. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson got the crowd fired up, and leaders and activists from across the union movement encouraged the crowd to stay mobilized.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who voted for the House’s historic health care reform bill a week ago, thanked those present for their activism and said we need to keep fighting to pass real reform legislation. Said Doggett:
We need an engaged citizenry to say we won’t stand for anything less than genuine reform.
Findlay, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Kills Parade Because Unions Backed It
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The Chamber of Commerce—that’s the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—proved once again how anti-American it is when it comes to supporting U.S. industry.
In Findlay, Ohio, unions had been organizing a parade and all-day event for this Saturday to highlight American-made products and the need for U.S. trade and economic policies that reward job growth in this country. The unions worked hard to get the business community involved and spent months meeting with the city’s Republican mayor, who supported the plans.
But in the end, GreaterFindayInc., the local Chamber arm, killed the Heart of Commerce and Community Celebration.
Says Donnie Blatt, United Steelworkers (USW) Rapid Response coordinator for District 1: “GreaterFindlayInc. did everything they could to sabotage us. They told business not to cooperate with us.”
Cheney Assault on Employee Free Choice: A Family Affair
As we noted last week, Dick Cheney did workers everywhere a favor by lending his massive unpopularity to the campaign against the freedom to form unions. You couldn’t pick a better symbol of the enemies of the Employee Free Choice Act than a discredited multimillionaire Bush administration villain.
As we’ve noted, even Republican insiders realize the widely loathed former vice president isn’t doing them any favors by keeping a high public profile of late.
But Cheney isn’t the only Cheney getting involved in the fight against workers’ freedom to bargain: His daughter, Mary Cheney, works for “Navigators Global,” a high-priced consulting firm whose clients include “Workplace,” one of the many deceptively named, well-funded corporate front groups behind the disinformation campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act. The work of the misnamed coalition is paid for by such champions of the health and safety workers as Wal-Mart and the Associated Builders and Contractors. (Check out how the consulting firm’s website brags about using “branding” to counteract their corporate funders’ weakness at the grassroots level.)
Memo to Chamber: Get Out of the Way of Fair Pay
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Holy pay discrimination, Batman! Did you know that working women here in Gotham City and around the country lose $434,000 over a lifetime of work because of the gender pay gap? But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting against fair pay for women?
With a boost from Batgirl (see video), our friends at I Am Progress and Moms Rising are telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “Get out of the way of fair pay.” The corporate lobby group has been the loudest voice on Capitol Hill against stronger fair pay laws. You can join in the chorus for pay equity and tell the Chamber to get out of the way, click here.
Launched today, the campaign aims to build support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act and knock down the Chamber’s bogus arguments against the fair pay legislation.
