Dayton Miami Valley AFL-CIO

Seth Michaels is posting live from the massive health care reform rally and lobby day.

Today in Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill, thousands of union members, community activists and health care advocates are coming together to demand quality health care for everyone.

To find out more about why America needs health care reform now, read the results of the 2009 Health Care for America Survey.

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Members of Congress are meeting in town hall sessions today with constituents who are on Capitol Hill to rally and demand health care reform. We’ll update this post with dispatches from the meetings throughout the day.

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Rep. Blumenauer at Town Hall on Small Business
At a town hall focused on small business issues this morning at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) advocated a public insurance option plan, guaranteed coverage and a “pay or play” system that would require businesses to provide health care coverage for their employees or pay into a fund. These reforms would level the playing field and reduce cost burdens on small businesses, he said.

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More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.

The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D.C., which ends today. Delegates will go back to the Capitol today to join thousands of workers in the mass rally in support of health care reform.

Before heading to meet with lawmakers yesterday, the CWA members heard Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) say the nation cannot have a strong middle class without a strong union movement. Biden said the Obama administration is committed to leveling the playing field for workers and giving them the bargaining power they need to rebuild the middle class.

Harkin asked:

Why should people have to crawl across broken glass and go through a kind of boot-camp hell in order to join a perfectly legal organization?

So our goal is to restore some measure of balance and fairness to the organizing process.

Both Biden and Harkin echoed the remarks by CWA President Larry Cohen, who said in his opening address Monday that 70 countries have a majority sign-up system for joining unions, but the United States does not. Cohen said the ability to join a union and bargain is crucial to the nation’s standard of living in the future. Click here to see a video of Cohen’s address.

We can’t restore the middle class with tax cuts. We can’t do it with federal jobs or another stimulus-even though some or all of those might be good ideas. But if workers across the U.S. had real bargaining rights, it would translate to bargaining and buying power.  It’s about time that we stand up for union contracts and stop worrying about bankers’ contracts.  Let the bankers fend for themselves and let’s stand up for each other.

Cohen said the union movement must be unified to carry out its mission of making life better for all.

In tough times like these, there will not be good answers until we create a movement of working families, rebuild our bargaining power through massive organizing, continue to build our political power as we are doing here this week, and unify our labor movement.

The delegates passed a resolution saying that in this time of great opportunity for the union movement:

It has never been more important for the union movement to be united so that we can fully take advantage of these opportunities. Together, we are stronger.

The resolution called for “exploring new ways of working together with the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association (NEA), and new ways of supporting each others’ campaigns. The passage of the resolution was highlighted by the presence of AFT Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel for the vote.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the convention Tuesday the Labor Department is “back in the enforcement business” after eight years of neglect of worker protections by the Bush administration.

We need more than jobs, we need good jobs-and that means safe jobs,

secure jobs, decent benefits and wages-it means a voice on the job.

Also during the convention, Michael Copps, acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, received the Herbert Block Freedom Award from The Newspaper Guild-CWA (TNG-CWA) for his work to force debate and transparency over media consolidation.

As giant media companies pushed for FCC rule changes to let them get even bigger, Copps called for public hearings across the country that gave communities, public interest groups and individuals an opportunity to be heard.

TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said:

While others tried to limit hearings and move quickly, Commissioner Copps made certain all voices were heard. He has set some of the highest standards for democracy in government today, and in doing so, has helped maintain a free and competitive press.

The Freedom Award is named for the late Washington Post editorial cartoonist best known as Herblock, who was a Guild member for 67 years.

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Thousands of union members, community activists and health care advocates from across the country will converge on Capitol Hill today to demand that Congress pass health care reform legislation that provides quality health care for all.

Today’s rally and lobby day sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is expected to be the largest-ever health care reform rally. It’s taking place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Upper Senate Park.

The rally will provide a much-needed voice on Capitol Hill for millions of families that are uninsured, under-insured and fed up with being at the mercy of insurance companies. Participants will call for real change in health care, including a public health insurance option for workers and families who either have private insurance or no coverage at all.

Results of the 2009 Health Care for America Survey (sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America) clearly show that America’s working families are suffering under a system that does not protect their health or their financial security. Of the more than 23,000 respondents in the survey, more than half say they can’t get the health care they need at a price they can afford.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says the rally shows the momentum and enthusiasm behind health care reform:

We are closer than ever to getting the health care reform we need. We cannot let the voices of opposition and the naysayers stifle the will of the people in order to maintain a system that only benefits private corporations. We must use this momentum to finally create a health care system that ends the delays and denials and provides health care for everyone.

If you can’t make the rally today, stay tuned here—we’ll be reporting live using Twitter.

Click here for more rally information from HCAN and text “HEALTH” to 94553 to receive updates on fast-moving health care reform activities throughout the summer.

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With thousands of union, health care and community activists set to descend on Capitol Hill tomorrow in what could be the largest ever rally for health care reform, the AFL-CIO is telling House committees this week that comprehensive reform must lower costs, improve quality and cover everyone.

Last week, House Democrats introduced a health care reform plan that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney calls:

a crucial roadmap for what health care reform should look like. Working families are desperate for an American solution that encourages choice, competition and opportunity for all Americans to choose the health care that works for them.

This week, the three House committees that developed the health care reform roadmap—Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means—are holding a series of hearings on the plan. In testimony for all three panels, Gerald Shea, AFL-CIO assistant to the president, says reform must build upon what works.

For the majority of Americans, what works in our current health care system is employer-based coverage—the backbone of health care coverage and financing in America. Over 160 million people under age 65 have health benefits tied to the workplace.

The House plan, says Shea, “outlines a reasonable and effective” pay-or-play requirement for employers. In pay or play, employers must provide coverage for their workers or pay into a fund.  Shea says the public health insurance option in the House draft will:

inject competition into the health care system and lower costs for employers and workers alike.

He outlines three other areas the AFL-CIO says must remain in the committees’ health care reform proposal to stabilize and build upon the employer-provided coverage system.

• Special assistance for firms that maintain coverage for pre-Medicare retirees, which will prevent further deterioration of the employer-based system;
• Health care delivery reforms to get better value from our system and containment of long-term costs; and
• Insurance market reforms, individual subsidies, Medicaid expansion and improvements to Medicare, which will help make affordable coverage available to everyone.

The public health insurance option, improving and making more efficient the way health care is delivered, and a pay-or-play option will generate significant savings and revenue to help finance health care reform. But, especially in the short run, other revenue will be needed. Shea says the AFL-CIO supports President Obama’s funding plans, including

savings in Medicare and Medicaid, limiting the itemized deductions for households in the top two tax brackets and other modifications to reduce the tax gap, as well as making the tax system fairer and more progressive.

However, adds Shea, the proposal to finance health care reform through a tax on employer-provided health coverage:

is an extraordinarily bad idea that would undermine efforts to stabilize the employer-provided health care system. Employers would likely respond by increasing employee cost-sharing to a level at which benefits would become unaffordable for low-wage workers, or by eliminating benefits altogether.

Taxing health care benefits would not bring down health care costs, either. It would just shift more of those costs onto workers.

If you are in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, join us on Capitol Hill and tell Congress loud and clear, “Health care reform can’t wait.”

Click here for information on the rally.  Click here to find out what 23,000-plus people said about the nation’s broken health care system in the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Health Care for America Survey.

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The Employee Free Choice Act is absolutely necessary to help workers rebuild the economy, according to a statement signed by 230 economists.

In the statement, many of America’s top economists, including Nobel Prize laureates, explain why the new law to protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain is more than desirable—it’s essential. Released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the statement builds on a February call for the legislation that has gathered growing support among economists.

The 230 economists, coming from top institutions in 33 states, point to the erosion of working family incomes as a key factor in our economic crisis—and the need for the freedom of workers to bargain collectively, without fear of management abuses, as key to recovery. The signers say:

As economists, we believe this is a critically important step in rebuilding our economy and strengthening our democracy by enhancing the voice of working people in the workplace.

These economists join hundreds of academics and other experts from across the country, from historians to business professors, as well as a broad coalition of faith, environmental, small business and civil rights groups, who are supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

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The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), introduced today by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), is “common sense legislation [that] would bar discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression…it is urgently needed and long overdue,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Click here to read Sweeney’s full statement.

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Today, a bipartisan group in Congress said they will reintroduce a major legislative overhaul of the nation’s failed trade policies to put good jobs at the center of a coherent global economic strategy.

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act, which has 106 co-sponsors, was first introduced last year but did not come to the floor. It would require a review of existing trade agreements, establish standards for future trade agreements, protect workers’ rights and help restore congressional oversight of trade agreements.  

Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), the bill’s sponsor, said at a Capitol Hill press conference today:

We all know that we live in a globalized world. But we need to ensure trade is fair for our workers and economy. The TRADE Act shows what we are for in future trade agreements—and paves the way on how to fix our existing agreements.

The co-sponsors reflect broad support in Congress for a new direction on trade. They include eight committee chairs, 45 subcommittee chairs, 17 Blue Dogs, 13 New Democrats and 19 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among many others.

Specifically, the TRADE Act would: 

• Require a comprehensive review of existing trade agreements with an emphasis on economic results, enforcement and compliance and an analysis of non-tariff provisions in trade agreements.
• Spell out standards for labor and environmental protections, food and product safety, national security exceptions and remedies that must be included in new trade pacts.
• Set requirements regarding public services, farm policy, investment, government procurement and affordable medicines and compare them with components of current trade agreements.
• Require the president to submit renegotiation plans for current trade pacts prior to negotiating new agreements and prior to congressional consideration of pending agreements.
• Create a committee made up of the chairs and ranking members of each committee whose jurisdiction is affected by trade agreements to review the president’s plan for renegotiations.
• Restore congressional oversight of trade agreements.

You can read a full text of the bill here.

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A coalition of veterans who are union members and other supporters of the freedom to form unions are gathering today in Los Angeles to send a strong message: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act now to give veterans the chance they need for a better life. 

Organized by the L.A. County Federation of Labor, these union veterans will rally outside the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, urging her and all of California’s members of Congress to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. 

As part of the rally, these veterans and workers will debut a new video that shows why veterans need the Employee Free Choice Act. This video includes testimony from a number of veterans who spoke at an April town hall meeting in Los Angeles attended by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. 

Carolyn Consoli, a Navy veteran, said in the video it was hard for her and many other returning veterans to find a job that offered the pay and benefits she needed: 

The only jobs I could find were those that led to poverty wages. 

The veterans who testified at the town hall meeting said they were able to join the military with just a signature, without having to ask anyone’s permission. Why, then, shouldn’t they have the same chance to form a union and bargain for a better life? 

You can watch the video here and find out more about today’s rally here.

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The global union movement is demanding that Iran stop its violent and deadly repression of the peaceful demonstrations following the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 

In a statement today, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Iranian authorities should   

cease and desist their violent repression of these peaceful demonstrations, as well as fully prosecute…all of those responsible for the tragic and reprehensible deaths and injuries.

Sweeney also condemned the continued violations of workers’ rights in Iran, including the recent arrest of four trade unionists and a journalist for participating in May Day rallies in Tehran. He announced that the AFL-CIO supports a global Day of Action: Justice for Iranian Workers on June 26. Workers around the world will demand the immediate release of all imprisoned Iranian trade unionists and the recognition of all authentic and independent workers’ organizations in Iran.

Click here to read the entire statement.

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