Labor Union Blog

Reforming the nation’s health care system, including cost controls, is a critical part of any national economic fix, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said today, and he urged lawmakers and the White House to make it an urgent priority.

Speaking to the 21st Annual Conference on Social Insurance, Fiscal Responsibility, and Economic Growth in Washington, D.C., Sweeney said the union movement is ratcheting up its commitment to creating a national system of affordable health care:

This year, we’re adding a sword’s point to that commitment: We have no time left for dithering, we’re in a perilous economic ditch, and we will not dig our way out and fix our economy until we fix our health care system.

The conference was hosted by the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance issues, such as Social Security, Medicare and workers’ compensation. Its mission is to promote understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security and a vibrant economy. Click here to read Sweeney’s entire speech.

Any health care reform must not only provide dependable delivery of service, Sweeney said, but contain costs as well.

In health care reform, the single toughest issue is cost control—without cost savings, the debates over financing and the relative roles of public and private insurance programs are useless.  National health care reform without cost controls is like moving furniture into a burning house.

Workers understand that the nation’s health care crisis contributed in large part to the current economic collapse, Sweeney said.

We in labor know the sad history all too well—we’ve been trying to bargain good wages for our members for all those years, and having to forego pay increases to maintain our benefits and keep premiums and co-payments under control.

The bottom line is that health care costs have been picking the pockets of working families for a long time. After basic expenses, families have been left with less and less money to spend and save, and that has undermined the corner of our economy we call consumer spending.

All stakeholders in the health care system—government, employers, insurers, workers, the medical community and pharmaceutical companies—will have to accept “their responsibilities when it comes to controlling costs and guaranteeing quality care,” Sweeney added.

For the first time in many years, we have the political advantage when it comes to meaningful health care reform, and we must seize the moment.

We must do it not only for the sake of the young, the old, the poor, the working poor, and the middle class who are depending on us, but in order to turn our economy around and make it work for everyone.

Brian Finnegan of the Solidarity Center, left, and Steelworkers member Patrick Young get ready to march in the rain at the World Social Forum.

Brian Finnegan and Gladys Cisneros of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center report from Belem, Brazil, where the World Social Forum began this week. The World Social Forum, launched in 2001 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, allows grassroots activists to debate and develop proposals to make the global economy work for everyone.

The World Social Forum opened Jan. 27 with thousands marching through relentlessly heavy rain in the Brazilian city of Belem. The downpour did not deter the drums and dancing of the crowd that advanced from the restored old Amazon waterfront docks to the Workers Square four miles away.

Members of the Brazilian national labor centers—CUT, Força Sindical and UGT—were joined by thousand of local and international labor, youth, environmental, indigenous, cultural and community activists of all ages. The Brazilian national labor centers are similar to labor federations like the AFL-CIO. U.S. labor participants included representatives of the Solidarity Center, United Steelworkers, Jobs with Justice, United Students Against Sweatshops and the United Electrical Workers.

Nearly 100,000 people are expected to participate in the forum, which brings together unions and activists from as many as 180 countries between Jan. 27 and Feb. 1. The World Social Forum, a mainstay of the global justice movement, is held every year at the same time as the World Economic Forum, a meeting of heads of state, financial ministers and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland. The Social Forum brings together civil society organizations from around the world in presenting solutions to economic and political challenges under the banner “Another World is Possible.” In contrast to the World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum calls for participation of all of the world’s people, not just the rich elite. 

While most of the world’s heads of state preferred to attend the economic forum, some leaders of major Latin American countries are participating in this year’s social forum. On the evening of Jan. 29, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will convene a meeting with three other Latin American presidents—Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Belem was chosen for this year’s World Social Forum to focus on the strategic importance of the Amazon region to the future of humanity. The Amazon, the world’s largest rain forest, has long been referred to as the “lungs of the world” because of its important role in turning carbon dioxide into the oxygen that we breathe. The region is also an important source of biodiversity and the source of many plants and life forms that provide ingredients for medicines like penicillin and many others that have not yet been discovered. 

Through panels and roundtables, participants will discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by the current global economic crisis. With families in the United States and around the world devastated by layoffs, plant shutdowns and foreclosures, this global economic crisis confirms that now, more than ever, another world is not only possible, but is absolutely necessary. The crisis also calls on labor unions and community organizations from around the world to collaborate across national boundaries in proposing new economic and political solutions that will put people, communities and the earth before profits.

Also throughout the week, meetings, forums and panels will bring together activists and organizers from around the world to talk about topics ranging from local community issues to international financial institutions. This is an exciting opportunity for the American labor movement to learn about and collaborate with our union brothers and sisters and civil society organizations from all around the world.

President Barack Obama today reversed three Bush-era anti-worker executive orders and created a Cabinet-level task force to rebuild the nation’s middle class. In a White House ceremony this morning attended by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and other union leaders, Obama signed three executive orders that reverse a series of orders by then-President George W.  Bush, which govern the way federal contractors deal with unionized workers.

The three new executive orders:

• Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
• Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Before signing the orders, Obama said:

We cannot have a strong middle class without strong labor unions. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests.

Obama also announced creation of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families to develop and coordinate policies to rebuild the nation’s middle class and lift the poor out of poverty. Vice President Joe Biden will chair the task force.

The task force has set up a new website, www.strongmiddleclass.gov/, where workers can submit stories and ideas about how the economy has affected them and ideas on changing it.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

The Task Force on Middle Class Working Families and the executive orders are the first step in a long road to restore balance between workers and corporations. As the weeks and months continue, we thank God that we have a president, vice president, and Congress who are determined to fix our economy so that it works for everyone.

Writing in USA Today, Biden says after the economy is jump-started by the new stimulus package, the top economic priority must be to rebuild the middle class.

On top of this urgent task, though, we have an important long-term task as well. Once this economy starts growing again, we need to make sure the benefits of that growth reach the people responsible for it. We can’t stand by and watch as that narrow sliver of the top of the income scale wins a bigger piece of the pie—while everyone else gets a smaller and smaller slice.

In government, as in life, you need clear goals to succeed. In the Obama/Biden administration, we have set a very clear goal: Our administration will have succeeded if the middle class once again starts to share in the economic success of this nation.

School Administrators President Jill Levy, who attended today’s signing, said in a statement:

This morning President Barack Obama welcomed labor back into the White House, where it has not been welcome for the last eight years. By announcing the creation of the Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, President Obama and Vice President Biden have assured all that they see growing the middle class and building a strong labor movement as inextricably tied to growing our economy.

United American Nurses President Ann Converso, who also attended the signings, said:

For nurses, union representation is critically important in allowing us to effectively advocate for our patients and give the quality of care our patients deserve. It was clear to me from my meeting with the president and vice president that they also understand the importance and value of unions for nurses and all workers as we pull together to try to jumpstart our middle class.

Biden announced that his chief economic adviser Jared Bernstein will serve as executive director of the task force. Bernstein, a 16-year veteran of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), most recently served as director of EPI’s living standards program.

This is the second consecutive day that Obama has shown his support for workers. Yesterday, he signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthens laws to ensure equal pay for equal work.

Some 4 million more low-income kids are getting closer to receiving health care coverage, after the Senate last night approved (66-32) a four-and-a-half year extension of a state-based program that provides health insurance for low-income children. Some 7 million children are currently enrolled.

It’s not been an easy path for the children’s health care program. Bush twice vetoed similar bills in 2007. But President Barack Obama will sign the legislation. Says Sen. Max Baucus:

When President Obama signs this bill, the real victory will belong not to politicians, but to kids…[it] gets kids in low-income working families the doctor’s visits and medicines they need when they’re sick, and the checkups they need to stay well.

The House passed its version of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) earlier this month, but because the Senate bill contains slight differences, the House must vote again. It is expected to approve the bill next week and send to Obama for his signature.

All Senate Democrats and a handful—nine—of Republicans voted for the bill. But final passage didn’t come until a daylong attempt by Republican leaders to weaken the bill through a series of amendments failed.

States are facing huge budget deficits and many are beginning to slash vital services, including health care. Says Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.):

In these tough economic times, state governments are being hit hard—and state programs for children’s health are starting to run out. Now more than ever, we need to expand our efforts to make sure no child goes to bed at night without health care in the greatest country on earth.

Bush first vetoed the program’s renewal in October 2007, and a congressional override attempt failed. After a second children’s health bill—revised to meet Bush’s objections to the original bill—passed with bipartisan support, Bush vetoed that bill in December 2007. Congress eventually passed a temporary reauthorization that did not expand coverage to more children and expires March 31.

Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees, points out that even though millions of people do not have the capacity to receive digital television, Congress blocked bills that would have delayed the switch from analog.

On Feb. 17, 2009, millions of America’s workers and their families, including rural, low-income and elderly citizens, will be left with blank TV screens. Don’t call the repairman. Contact your members of Congress.

Feb. 17 is the date that television stations stop using analog signals to broadcast and switch to digital. If you have an analog TV set and use an antenna or rabbit ears, you must buy a converter box, a digital TV or subscribe to cable or satellite service to receive programming—at a time when the public has fewer resources than ever to buy the necessary equipment.

The government has run out of the federally subsidized coupons to help pay for the converter box—and there still are millions of people on the waiting list.

In recent weeks, there were attempts by Congress to delay the transition to digital. But the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce failed twice in the past week to approve a digital TV (DTV) delay bill. House officials agreed on Jan. 26 to put the previously passed Senate version up for a vote. That vote was scratched on Jan. 27 but back on Jan. 28. That day, House Republicans defeated delaying the DTV deadline four months by a vote of 258-168.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration cannot tell accurately how many homes will lose TV reception on Feb. 17. Conservative estimates say more than 2 million.

If your screen goes blank, remember why—and e-mail your members of Congress here.

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lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10402UAW Drops Jobs Bank – GM Says No UAW Wage Cuts Neededa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10403President Obama’s First Bill-Signing Strikes Blow Against Pay Discriminationa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10404Stella D’Oro Workers In NYC Enter Sixth Month Of Strikea//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10405Economic Report: Union Women Get Better Pay, Benefits Than Non-Uniona//li
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pEconomic Report:/p
pWomen who have been discriminated against received good news Thursday with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Act, but it doesn’t change much for unionized female workers. According to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, belonging to a union raises the wages of women by 11.2 percent compared to non-union women. They are also 19 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 25 percent more likely to have employer-provided pension benefits. /p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pOne hundred thirty-six workers are in the sixth month of a strike to resist pay cuts. Betty Maloney is working on the campaign to support the striking workers who make the cookies New Yorkers love./p
p[Maloney]: “This company broke the Teamster union truckers, the delivery people, and now it’s attacking the workers in the plant. These are low-paid workers, they need our support.”/p

pYesterday the country took a step forward toward pay equality. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pThursday morning President Barack Obama signed his first bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The legislation will make it easier for those who allege pay discrimination based to sue. It extends the statute of limitations for workers denied equal pay by 180 days for every discriminatory paycheck issued by an employer. Obama said the Act doesnít just tell Ledbetterís story, but a story of women who continue to fight for equal pay:/p
p[Obama1]: It’s the story of women across this country still earning just 78 cents for every dollar men earn — women of color even less — which means that today, in the year 2009, countless women are still losing thousands of dollars in salary, income and retirement savings over the course of a lifetime./p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pThe United Auto Workers union has agreed to end the Jobs Bank that paid laid-off workers at GM and Chrysler until they could be called back to work. But GM says no UAW wage cuts are needed as the union, GM and Chrysler negotiate a cost-cutting agreement to satisfy federal loan conditions. The federal loans require that the UAW reach agreements with GM and Chrysler by March to bring labor costs in line with what foreign non-union plants in the U.S. are paying workers. GM President Fritz Henderson says GM doesnít need wage cuts from the UAW because there is no significant difference now between what UAW workers are paid and what the foreign automakers pay their U.S. workers./p