Labor Union Blog

Telling Congress “the time for bickering is over…now is the season for action,” President Obama tonight offered his most detailed vision of health care reform legislation in speech before the nation and both houses of Congress.

That health care reform vision includes a public health insurance plan option that Obama says will keep “pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better.” 

“It’s worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I’ve proposed tonight. I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can’t find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice. And I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.” 

He said his overall health care reform plan will meet three basic goals: 

• Provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance;
• Provide insurance to those who don’t; and
• Slow the growth of health care costs for families, businesses and government. 

The plan, says Obama,

asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting this challenge—not just government and insurance companies, but employers and individuals.

He also assured the hundreds of millions of Americans who have health coverage through their job, Medicare, Medicaid or the Veterans Affairs, “nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage you have or the doctor you have.”

Among the changes in insurance company rules, said Obama, the legislation will make it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions or to drop someone from the insurance rolls or reduce their coverage when they become sick. 

Health care costs have doubled in the past decade and are now rising three times faster than wages. If action isn’t taken, Obama said: 

Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it the most. And more will die as a result.

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One Senate and three House committees have reported out health care reform bills that include many of the provisions in the Obama plan. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to act on their version next week.

The number of open jobs in the United States is down 50 percent in comparison to the same time in 2007. According to the Department of Labor, one 2.4 million jobs are available in the United States, the lowest number on record since the government agency began tracking the data. The report found that in July for every one job opening there were 6.04 unemployed.

The number of open jobs in the United States is down 50 percent in comparison to the same time in 2007. According to the Department of Labor one 2.4 million jobs are available in the United States, the lowest number on record since the government agency began tracking the data. The report found that in July for every one job opening there were 6.04 unemployed.

Philadelphia is putting pressure on state lawmakers by threatening to fire 3,000 city workers on October 2 if changes to pensions aren’t approved and sales taxes aren’t increased. Termination notices will start going out to workers on September 18. Pennsylvania has been at a budget stalemate for three months and is the only state that has yet to sign off on a budget agreement. Yesterday marked the 70th day the state was without a budget.

Philadelphia is putting pressure on state lawmakers by threatening to fire 3,000 city workers on October 2 if changes to pensions aren’t approved and sales taxes aren’t increased. Termination notices will start going out to workers on September 18. Pennsylvania has been at a budget stalemate for three months and is the only state that has yet to sign off on a budget agreement. Yesterday marked the 70th day the state was without a budget.

Lede: As the AFL-CIO prepares for its convention next week, Executive Vice-President Arlene Holt-Baker says labor is confident that both labor law reform and healthcare reform will be achieved.

By Doug Cunningham

Holt-Baker says the AFL-CIO will make history in Pittsburgh by electing two women to the top three leadership posts in the federation.

[Holt-Baker]: “There is a recognition that nearly half of our membership is female. Women and people of color are the most likely to be willing to form and join unions.”

She says the AFL-CIO is working hard to make healthcare reform happen this year. On the Employee Free Choice act labor law reform, Holt-Baker says even if majority sign-up is removed from the bill its principles will stay intact.

Lede: As the AFL-CIO prepares for its convention next week, Executive Vice-President Arlene Holt-Baker says labor is confident that both labor law reform and healthcare reform will be achieved.

By Doug Cunningham

Holt-Baker says the AFL-CIO will make history in Pittsburgh by electing two women to the top three leadership posts in the federation.

[Holt-Baker]: “There is a recognition that nearly half of our membership is female. Women and people of color are the most likely to be willing to form and join unions.”

She says the AFL-CIO is working hard to make healthcare reform happen this year. On the Employee Free Choice act labor law reform, Holt-Baker says even if majority sign-up is removed from the bill its principles will stay intact.

Today’s young workers, facing a tumbling economy, growing joblessness and stagnant wages, are more than twice as likely to be worried about their economic future than their under-35 counterparts a decade ago.

The recent major study and nationwide survey, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade” by the AFL-CIO and Working America finds that 41 percent of young workers say they are concerned they won’t be able to achieve their economic and financial goals.

In 1999, the AFL-CIO’s young worker survey found that more than three quarters of under-35 workers were hopeful and confident of a brighter economic future, and just 20 percent expressed doubt about their financial future.

What’s fueling the nosedive in optimism? Compared with 1999, today’s young workers face a far tighter job market with higher unemployment rates. They are less likely to have full-time jobs and more likely to be working two jobs to make ends meet, let alone save money. They’ve put their education plans and family dreams on hold.

What can we do to fix the economy and restore hope and optimism for today’s young workers? Post your comments below.

While the rescue of the nation’s top financial institutions was necessary, the rescue must be accompanied by strong action now to rein in the same institutions that caused the global financial crisis in the first place, several experts said today.

During a forum sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), panelists pointed out that the nation’s four largest bank holding companies control nearly half of the bank assets in the country—almost double the amount they controlled in 2002—not a good situation for our economy.

The biggest threat: All these banks are carrying billions of dollars in bad debts. Their weak balance sheets make them hesitant to lend—the so-called zombie bank phenomenon. But their financial weakness is paired with political power, power that may not be consistent with our democratic principles, says Damon Silvers, deputy chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP). 

Silvers, who is associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO, says the banks dubbed “too big to fail”—Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo—are not playing their role of financing the real economy—lending to businesses that create jobs.

Instead they are doing high interest, high fee credit card lending and high risk exotic financial products, relying on the government to bail them out if they fail. That doesn’t help homeowners facing foreclosure or small businesses that need capital to grow or the unemployed workers who could get jobs if business expanded, Silvers said.

He said the $10 trillion these four banks control would make a much bigger dent in the recession than the $800 billion in deferral economic recovery funds. Silvers said the executive compensation system needs to be reviewed to force executives to look at long-term goals rather than the short-term. The current system rewards executives for short-term profits. Even if a company fails, the executives don’t suffer because of the way the pay packages are written. 

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka discussed the need for long-term investment today as well, joining with Warren Buffett and other business, government and academic leaders and the Aspen Institute in a bold call to overcome short-term focus in financial markets.

Their joint statement, “Overcoming Short-Termism: A Call for a More Responsible Approach to Investment and Business Management,” calls for ending the focus on value—destroying short-termism in our financial markets and creating public policies that reward long-term value creation for investors and the public good. The statement also calls for consideration of a financial services transaction tax.

Other speakers at the EPI forum also stressed how the banking system needs to be overhauled and regulated closely. John Boyd, a professor at the University of Minnesota, proposed a straight-forward approach of limiting the size of the banks and significantly increasing regulation.

MIT professor Simon Johnson pointed out that de-regulation of financial services created this economic mess. Unfettered, the financial industry created more and more innovative products that were based on nothing tangible, he said.

Johnson also warned against the revolving door between the banks and the government, saying there should be a five-year ban on employees moving from the Treasury Department to financial institutions and vice versa.

Silvers recommended several key financial reforms:

• An entity other than the Federal Reserve must regulate the banking system. Entrusting the Fed, which at the regional level is controlled by bankers, with regulating the system, is like having the “fox in the henhouse,” he said.
• Global financial regulations must be established.
• Congress should approve the Obama administration’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. If in the past few years an entity had existed to look out for the financial consumers, the financial suffering would not have been so severe, Silvers said.