Labor Union Blog

With more than 5,000 confirmed and probable cases of the H1NI (swine flu) virus in the United States—including 82 infections in health care workers—as well as six deaths and reports that the virus is continuing to spread, the AFL-CIO and several unions today urged the federal government to act swiftly to protect workers.

In a letter to Jordan Barab, acting director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director Peg Seminario writes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspects the number of confirmed cases understates the actual level of infection and that the H1N1 virus is spreading. Says Seminario’s letter:

As OSHA and CDC have recognized, health care workers, emergency responders and other workers who come into close contact with patients infected with the novel H1N1 virus are at increased risk of exposure and infection and require protection.  

When the virus was discovered to have spread to the United States earlier this spring, the CDC and OSHA recommended that employers follow recently issued guidelines for protecting workers from pandemic flu, and CDC issued new interim guidelines to protect health care workers from the H1N1 infection. But as Seminario writes:

Unfortunately, there is documented evidence that in a number of states and facilities, these guidelines are not being followed.

In April, a report by the AFL-CIO and several unions revealed that health care workers are at risk because many of the nation’s health care facilities are not prepared to deal with a pandemic.

While there is currently no comprehensive OSHA standard covering airborne infectious diseases such as the H1N1 virus, OSHA has the authority to enforce recommended measures under the general duty requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Says Seminario:

We request that OSHA immediately issue a hazard alert and/or compliance directive that makes clear that exposure to the novel H1N1 virus in healthcare settings and emergency response activities poses a recognized hazard to workers and requires protective measures.

Those measures should incorporate the OSHA respiratory protection standard and its personal proactive equipment standard, along with making clear the CDC and OSHA guidelines will be enforced under the agency’s general duty clause that requires employers to provide a safe workplace.

Taking these steps will make clear to healthcare employers their obligations to protect workers, and will reaffirm to healthcare workers that the government is taking the necessary steps to ensure that they are protected.

AFT, AFSCME. Communications Workers of America (CWA), Fire Fighters (IAFF), UAW, Laborers (LIUNA), SEIU and the Steelworkers (USW) signed onto the letter.

Don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO’s pandemic flu site, which includes vital resources for health care workers, firefighters, educators and more. Just added to the site are five updated fact sheets:

• Basic Facts About Pandemic Flu and the H1N1 (Swine) Flu
• Protecting Workers During Pandemic Flu
• Protecting Health Care Workers During Pandemic Flu
• Respirators: One Way to Protect Workers Against Pandemic Flu
• What the Union Can Do: Preparing the Workplace for Pandemic Flu

Economic Report:

When stacked up to 22 other countries ranked highly by economic and human development the United States is the only country that does not guarantee workers receive paid sick days. According to a report by the Center for Economic Policy Research the U.S. is the only country out of the 22 that doesn’t provide sick leave for workers undergoing fifty-day cancer treatments. When put in terms of the potential for a flu pandemic the economic repercussions could be enormous.

New York City’s largest public employees union has launched a campaign over what it calls $9 billion in wasted money spent by the city to hire private contractors. Jesse Russell reports.

District Council 37 has begun posting ads in subways urging New Yorkers to tell Mayor Michael Bloomberg to “Cut Private Contractors, Not Public Services.” The council says the contractors often don’t pay a living wage or provide health care benefits and some don’t pay state or city taxes. During a May 7 City Council hearing it was suggested that Bloomberg has contracted out so much work because those contractors have the skills the city workers don’t. DC37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts disagreed with that suggestion and referred to $79 million in custodial work that is contracted out:

By Doug Cunningham

The Oregon AFL-CIO, AFSCME and the Oregon NEA are running radio ads in Oregon opposing Democratic Senator Ron Wyden’s proposal to tax health care benefits like income. The labor organizations say middle class working families would take a $2-4,000 tax hit if health benefits are taxed. During a press conference call on the issue we asked why the debate isn’t focused on a single-payer universal coverage system rather than wrangling over issues like whether or not to tax employer based benefits. Some polls indicate a majority of Americans support single-payer, it saves 30 percent in overhead costs and covers everyone, whether they have a job or not. Hundreds of labor organizations nationwide have signed on to support the Conyers single payer bill and millions of Americans support single payer, so why isn’t it part of the health care reform debate? Here’s Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain’s reply.

North Florida union members protest a meeting of an anti-union group in Jacksonville.

As the Employee Free Choice Act gets closer to reality, the anti-worker disinformation campaign grows louder with corporate front groups throwing everything they have against workers. Across the country, union members and their allies are pushing back and letting the corporate titans know they won’t back down when it comes to the freedom to form unions.

In Wisconsin, union members converged in Milwaukee to protest an appearance by Karl Rove, the former Bush administration political enforcer who is traveling the country telling corporate executives to fight the Employee Free Choice Act. And in Florida, union members gathered in Jacksonville outside a meeting of an anti-union corporate group, the “Center for a Union-Free Workplace Environment,” to protest their opposition to workers’ freedom to bargain for a better life.

There’s still time to take the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Health Care for America Survey. Many of those who have done so are telling us how they have lost their jobs in the economic downturn and now are struggling to foot the bill for their health care—or are going without coverage. And those  who still receive health care coverage through their employer say they are paying more and more as health care costs soar, according to a new study.

Even when workers struggle to pay for their own health coverage, the for-profit insurance industry puts up roadblocks. Ann, from Jackson, Tenn., writes at the AFL-CIO survey that because of a “pre-existing condition,” when she tries to secure coverage, she is turned down. Now she says:

I get my health insurance through my church—I pray that I don’t get sick.

Ann is one of 16,000 people who have completed the survey—co-sponsored by Working America—and one of the more than 4,300 respondents who have shared their personal health care stories. Elizabeth and her husband in Arizona went without insurance for just two months, but in that time her husband had a heart attack.

This has led us into bankruptcy and we lost our house. One critical illness shouldn’t wipe out everything it took a lifetime to build.

Survey respondents describe high health care costs, lack of coverage for students, inadequate military retirement coverage, cancer diagnoses they can’t afford to treat and other medical issues that are being neglected due to inadequate coverage. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

This survey is showing that in today’s economy, it is more urgent than ever that we work toward health care reform that provides quality, affordable coverage for everyone, including those who are unemployed or between jobs. People who work hard all their lives and pay their fair share should not be hung out to dry during hard times. These stories serve as a constant reminder that our current system is broken and we must reform it now.

Meanwhile, a study by the consulting group Milliman Inc., finds that for the third year in a row, health care costs—premiums, co-pays and deductibles—rose by double digits (14.7 percent) this year for workers who receive coverage through work. Employers are paying 5.4 percent more in premium costs.

According to the report, the average cost to insure a family of four this year is $16,771. Employers paid average contribution of $9,947 per worker. Employees paid an average of $4,004 in payroll deductions and an additional $2,820 in out-of-pocket expenses.

The report finds that not only are employers shifting more costs to workers, some are dropping health coverage altogether.

That’s what happened to Christy in Oregon. She tells the Health Care for America Survey that several years ago, her employer began providing health coverage after years without. Though the coverage was barebones—with a $5,000 deductible—she was able to get treatment for a serious foot ailment. Yet:

I am still in pain and now in debt for $1,800. I can’t afford to go back and now we’ve had to give up what little insurance we had through work because the company can no longer afford the premiums.

At least I have car insurance. If I were to get seriously hurt, I would throw myself in my car and drive it into a tree.

Our Health Care for America Survey is open to the public. The survey features multiple choice questions asking about the current state of health care as well as an option to share personal stories. Click here to take the survey and tell your story.

We’ll share the results of the survey with national and state leaders and the media. Congress, the Obama administration and the media are hearing about health care reform from drug companies and insurance companies. We want to make sure they hear from working families as well.

 AFL-CIO President John Sweeney praised today’s agreement on nationwide fuel economy standards as “a major step forward and a victory for America’s workers, consumers and the environment.”

The agreement, announced today by President Obama, requires vehicle carbon dioxide emissions be reduced by about one-third. Under the changes, the overall fleet average would have to be 35.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2016, with passenger cars reaching 39 mpg and light trucks hitting 30 mpg. Manufacturers also would be required to hit individual mileage targets.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who attended the White House announcement,  praised Obama’s leadership in bringing together auto industry leaders, workers, environmental groups and state and federal government officials to develop the new standards.

President Obama and his team showed real leadership by bringing everyone to the table to reach an innovative agreement. The final standards will be stringent, but will have support throughout industry, government and the environmental community.

In seperate statements, Gettelfinger and Sweeney said the agreement will help protect workers by treating full-line manufacturers fairly, maintaining a distinction between cars and light trucks and applying to all automakers.

The agreement also calls for continuing credits for flex-fuel vehicles and continuing incentives for small-car production here in the United States, which Gettelfinger says is “a capability that is vital to protecting jobs and our nation’s long-term energy security.”

 Sweeney added that the plan

 shows that protecting our environment and creating good paying jobs can go hand in hand and America’s workers are proud to do their part toward achieving this deal. 

The pundits and politicians inside the Washington Beltway don’t get: If the United States continues to send its manufacturing jobs overseas—as General Motors and Chrysler are now proposing—the result will be more low-income U.S. families.

So today, workers, economists, academics and business and union leaders, fresh from the “Keep It Made in America” bus tour through the nation’s heartland, brought that message to the policymakers’ doorstep as part of a teach-in on Capitol Hill.

The 11-day, 34-city bus tour showcased the ripple effect on communities of the lost jobs in manufacturing. (See video.) Today, during the teach-in, those who took part brought the stories they heard along the tour and presented principles for revitalizing the auto industry to members of Congress and the press. 

(You can support the 7.2 million people whose jobs depend on the auto industry by joining the Campaign for America’s Future action to bring back American manufacturing by pledging to buy fuel-efficient, union-built American cars here. You also can sign the Keep It Made in America petition urging Congress and the administration to ensure that auto industry restructuring plans preserve and enhance the manufacture of automobiles in America here.)

The auto industry is tied to 7.2 million jobs. Losing the industry would affect not only autoworkers in Detroit and workers in auto supply industries and car dealerships. It would cause restaurants that serve the factory workers to shut down, force retailers out of business, mean workers’ children could not attend college and rip the social fabric of this country, speakers warned. Municipal tax bases will plummet and firefighters, police and hospital workers will lose their jobs, making our cities and towns less safe.

From Tennessee to Texas, Michigan and Ohio, hardworking folks said they want to see family-supporting jobs stay in America. “They want their shot at the American Dream,” United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard told the teach-in:

They are counting on our leaders in Washington to fight for them, to recognize there’s much more at stake than profits. The auto sector is fundamental to America’s manufacturing strength. It’s about saving the jobs that made America great.

Speaking at the teach-in, radio and TV host Ed Schulz says the national media doesn’t understand that “the social fabric of America is being ripped apart” and that it may require something akin to the civil rights movement of the 1960s to get their attention.

Laid-off steelworker Doug May from Edwardsville, Ill., put it in these stark terms:

As a USW member, I sent three children through college. I feel sorry for some of the younger families. They won’t have opportunities if the manufacturing base fails. How are we going to compete if we can’t send our kids to college?

If the mill closes, it will be an ugly scene [leading to] an increase in alcoholism, divorces. If pensioners are cut off, it could create an economic tsunami.  

In a column today on Huffington Post, Gerard tells the stories of four steelworkers whose lives have been turned upside down by the closure of the plants where they worked.

Through no fault of their own, they’ve lost their jobs, their homes, their health care. These are the people who are the strength of America, who in better times volunteered in New York City after 9-11 and in New Orleans after Katrina. Now, they’re forced to get groceries at their union hall’s food bank. They’re humiliated.  

Click here to read the entire column.

The biggest culprit in the decline of U.S. manufacturing is the “blind rush to free trade,” Gerard said. The result has been a $6.5 trillion trade deficit that must be serviced by sending $400 billion-$500 billion offshore every year—or by selling off our assets.

We can’t compete with that. If we can’t make things in America, we’re going to put ourselves in a spot where everyone is making $1.50 an hour with no health care, no pension and no one will be able to buy anything.

When manufacturing jobs leave, the service jobs that replace them do not measure up in terms of creating additional jobs or raising the standard of living, said USW economist Lisa Jordan. The 10 fastest growing jobs in the country are poverty-level service jobs, unless the worker belongs to a union, she said.

There is a fundamental mismatch—sending good jobs overseas and leaving the poor jobs here. It’s not just whether [laid-off manufacturing workers] can find jobs. It’s what kind of jobs we have. 

The decision to send auto jobs overseas is not about cost, said Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University. A Japanese car costs about the same to make as an American car and they sell for more. Labor costs only contribute 10 percent to the cost of an American car, she said.

Mayor Vince Bernero in Lansing, Mich., likened the current manufacturing crisis to a war, noting we understand what it means for the country to be in physical danger and how to react.  But when it comes to the economic danger created by the unfair trade practices in the global economy, we don’t react.

Our response to free trade is unilateral surrender. We would never do that in a physical war; why do it in an economic war?

As UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told the Capitol Hill crowd:

Everybody’s talking about economic stimulus. A good-paying job is the best stimulus we can have.

To rebuild our manufacturing base, the co-sponsors of the “Keep It Made in America” tour—the USW, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) and  Mayors and Municipalities Coalition—are presenting Congress and the Obama administration with principles for revitalizing auto and auto parts manufacturing and driving economic activity beyond the assembly floor:

• Stimulate domestic demand for automobiles. For example, the government could create an incentive program like cash-for-clunkers with a strong domestic content requirement and restore credit for consumers and businesses.
• Spend tax dollars to support domestic jobs, investment and innovation, and reject off-shoring as a path to profitability for GM and Chrysler.
• Restore cooperative innovation and development programs.
• Change health care policy to eliminate structural problems for the domestic auto industry. The Big Three automakers’ competitors benefit from national health care programs or by offering substandard benefits.
• Ensure our trade policies promotes U.S. interests by enforcing trade laws, currency mismanagement and other non-tariff barriers to fair trade in autos.

Other speakers at today’s event included the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Wilbur Ross, CEO of WL Ross and Co.; AAM Executive Director Scott Paul; and several mayors and members of Congress.