“Vote ‘YES’, fix this mess!”
Dozens of people rallied outside the Raleigh offices of Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-2nd), today, to show their support for finishing the job on health insurance / health care reform. The rally was a last-minute response to an anti-reform protest of Rep. Etheridge, who voted for the House reform bill. Even with [...]
Can we afford NOT to act?
We are now in the end-game on health care reform. Time will tell whether it succeeds or fails, but is failure really an option for North Carolinians?
“North Carolinians need health reform more than ever,” says the national non-profit health care policy group, Families USA, in a new report, The [...]
Blue Cross Blue Shield NC premiums way up
The News & Observer reports on huge rate increases hitting North Carolina families who have health care coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield – almost everyone, given their practical monopoly:
“In this state, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, a nonprofit insurer that controls most of the [...]
If the market is the solution, how’s that working out now?
Opponents of reforming any industry always say regulation isn’t the answer. Well, absent meaningful regulations, how are the health insurance companies doing at keeping costs down (and profits up)?
Adam Linker, blogger at The Progressive Pulse, the NC Policy Watch blog, has put together a list [...]
The Recovery Act is working
One year ago this week, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At the time our economy was in free fall, the stock market had tanked, and job losses were topping 800,000 a month. Millions of Americans who lost their jobs were also losing their health [...]
Sign the petition to give TSOs a Voice @ Work
Nine years is long enough for workers at the Transportation Security Administration to go without collective bargaining rights. Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the power to grant this basic human right to Transportation Security Officers. The federal employees [...]
Labor Dept. announces new rules for H-2A
U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis announced tough new regulations on wages and job safety protections for temporary agricultural workers. The new rules, which will go into effect in time for the 2010 growing season, “reflect the Administration’s commitment to providing fair wages and strong labor protections [...]
One year into his presidency, still much more to do
On Wednesday, President Obama delivered his first State of the Union address. In his speech, the President recommitted his administration to economic recovery and job creation, announced bold new education initiatives, chided the Senate for being too slow to enact a series of reform bills passed [...]
‘Citizens United’ ruling a disaster for democracy
If we thought the flow of money in politics was bad before, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Last week, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States elevated corporations to the level of actual persons with a free-speech guarantee under the first amendment to advocate for the [...]
Fix the problems of working Americans, or else
Working families, especially voters in union households, turned out big in 2008 to elect the largest Democratic majorities in Congress in decades and bring change to the White House.
In 2009, we mobilized like never before on a legislative agenda for labor law reform so workers can be empowered [...]
Nationwide phone blitz of Congress is underway
Light up those phone banks, rev up those calls, and let’s let the U.S. Congress hear the powerful voice of working families! The AFL-CIO’s national phone blitz on health care reform began at midnight and continues all day, today. The blitz comes at the most critical moment in [...]
AFL-CIO President talks jobs, restoring the middle class, and health care
In a speech delivered to the National Press Club on Monday, National AFL-CIO President, Rich Trumka, said because of the failed policies of the past three decades, the United States is “a nation with profound, unaddressed structural economic problems on a long-term, downward [...]
Bad politics, worse policy
The Senate health care “reform” bill raises revenue by taxing your employer-provided health insurance benefit. This excise tax will hit middle class families hard – particularly union households because our members are more likely to have health insurance through work.
Taxing health care benefits is bad politics, and it’s the wrong way to [...]
We need reform that works for working families
As we reach the finish line in our fight for national health care reform, we are calling on union members nation-wide to deluge members of Congress with phone calls demanding reform that works for working families.
All of us — national, local union leaders, activists and members, state federation, [...]
AFL-CIO unveils 5-point plan to fix jobs crisis
It’s up to us, America’s unions, to lead the fight for solutions that will get us out of this crisis. The AFL-CIO has a five-point plan to create and save millions of jobs over the next year, starting as soon as Congress acts. It will take all [...]
Not worthy of our support without changes
Working people have been fighting for health care reform in the United States for over a century. Despite the challenges to getting a good bill, we are not about to give up now.
Today, our country stands alone in the developed world as the only nation not to provide comprehensive [...]
Retirees urge Congressman to support HCR
What present would you ask your member of Congress for this holiday season? How about living up to the campaign promises made to voters in 2008?
An organization of union retirees in North Carolina, the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), has something in mind — comprehensive health care reform.
“Give the gift [...]
Let’s get it done – and done right!
The campaign to pass reform of the health insurance industry and the provision of health care in our country has come further this year than ever before.
Still, that’s not good enough.
Until the Congress passes and the President signs comprehensive health care reform legislation, our job is not [...]
The slow, deliberative path to the end begins
Late last Saturday, the Senate voted 60-39 to open debate on historic health care and health insurance reform legislation. Having cleared this procedural vote, debate is set to begin after Thanksgiving.
Senator Kay Hagan voted with the rest of the Democratic caucus to debate the most important domestic policy [...]
Making the case for change with just the facts
The Department of Health and Human services has released state-by-state reporting on the impact of proposed health insurance legislation making it’s way through the Congress. Go to www.healthreform.gov for details.
For North Carolina, health insurance reform means immediate relief for seniors and working families. As early as next [...]
Another hurdle cleared on path toward reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has worked to create a good bill in combining the two health care and health insurance reform bills passed out of Senate committees earlier this year.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would cover 94% of Americans while reducing the deficit by $130 [...]
“Improving Employee Rights at Work, Improving Employee Livelihood”
The North Carolina Justice Center has released a special federal policy update on the Employee Free Choice Act (opens PDF). The report, by Stephen Jackson of the NC Budget and Tax Center, concludes the legislation is reform North Carolina workers need:
“Despite the Piedmont crescent being home to high [...]
Geraldine Ritch lost her job to China, then her house to foreclosure in Hickory, NC (photo by Jim Bounds for Washington Post)
Western NC town has 15% unemployment, focus of report by Washington Post
North Carolina has lost more jobs – 90,000 – to foreign competition than any other state since 2002, according to the [...]
How did your representative vote?
On Saturday, November 7, 2009, health care reform legislation passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, making it further than other effort to-date.
From the AFL-CIO Blog:
Last night, 220 members of Congress showed they’re on the side of working families, not big insurance companies. They’ve earned our thanks for keeping their promises [...]
Reform efforts at pivotal point, needs union support to win
The U.S. House of Representatives released it’s health care reform (HCR) legislation late last week. The Affordable Health Care for America Act – H.R. 3962, includes a strong public option for those without insurance, an employer mandate to provide insurance to employees, and does not tax [...]
“A level playing field is as important in the workplace as it is in baseball.”
The Major League Baseball Players Association, AFL-CIO, is marking the beginning of the World Series with print ads in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. The ads will run in today’s edition of Capitol Hill newspapers Roll Call, The [...]
Read the report by Public Citizen – Forced Arbitration: Unfair and Everywhere (PDF).
FairArbitrationNow.org launched to highlight, bring end to the abuse
Forced arbitration is giving up your right to go to court if you are harmed by a company. Under forced arbitration, any dispute you have with a company is handled by a third party that [...]
It’s not scary or complicated at all
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.
Watch the video, then share it with your social network:
Call the Congress toll-free using this number: 1-877-3-AFL-CIO (1-877-323-5246). Tell them we want health care reform including a strong public option. Make [...]
From our health care reform allies at Moveon.org
Heather Graham stars as the Public Option in this funny ad, showing how she’ll force the lazy, bloated private insurance companies to get back in the game and compete. After all, competition is as American as apple pie. Actor Peter Coyote narrates.
Watch the video, then share it [...]
Congress needs to hear from you – not just insurance lobbyists
Seven hundred thousand dollars per day. That’s how much money health insurance companies and HMO’s are spending to kill health insurance reform. That’s your premium dollars at work, folks, lobbying the Congress to protect their profits and against your interests.
What are you going to do [...]
WATCH VIDEO: ‘Under the Bus’
A coalition of national civil rights groups, including the NAACP Voter Action Fund and the National Council of La Raza, have joined to make sure health insurance reform legislation coming together in the Congress does not “throw 46 million of us under the bus.”
Health Equity for All on [...]
Let’s make health care access palatable for all!
Our allies in the health care reform battle, Organizing for America, are providing Raleigh area residents another opportunity to affect the change we need in health care.
On Sunday, October 11 from 2 to 5:00 pm, there will be a potluck and phone bank for health care reform at [...]
Hollywood speaks out to help insurance companies
Have we been too hard on private insurance companies? Will Ferrell and others say so in this new PSA from Funny or Die:
“As the health care debate heats up, we need to remember who the real victims are: health insurance executives…Why is Obama trying to reform health care when [...]
Wendell Potter, CIGNA whistle blower leads ‘Crucial Conversation’
The NC Justice Center will hold the next installment in it’s ‘Crucial Conversation’ lunch series next Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The guest speaker will be Wendell Potter.
Until recently, Potter was a senior executive for corporate communications at CIGNA, a major private health insurance company. His job was [...]
Health Care Reform: A Progressive Agenda
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
–Martin Luther King, Jr., March 25, 1966
The activists’ teach-in is an opportunity to examine the promises and compromises in proposed legislation and the President’s plan. Will health reform bring real health care justice? [...]
Defends domestic tire makers from illegal Chinese trade practices
Responding to pleas for relief from the United Steelworkers union and for the strict enforcement of our trade agreements, President Obama slapped tariffs on imported Chinese tires on September 11, 2009.
The move came in response to a complaint filed by the USW with the International Trade Commission [...]
Both reforms needed to correct basic unfairness
I interviewed Teddy McNeal during our 52nd annual convention on labor’s big legislative priorities, the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform. “I support the Employee Free Choice Act because workers need a way of being able to say ‘Yes, I want a union,’ without fear of intimidation,” [...]
What’s the correlation?
There is a strong relationship between our fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and the push for health care reform. Bob Riggins, former president of UAW local 5285, understands the importance of passing both bills.
“The Employee Free Choice Act is important because employees don’t have anybody who speaks for them. Employers [...]
Earnestine Mitchell, Workers United 565, knows all too well the need for reform
Earnestine Mitchell of Workers United local 565 has a story to tell. With a diabetic son, a granddaughter with cerebral palsy and a daughter-in-law with lupus, this family has experienced first hand the failure of the American health care system to provide for [...]
Giving workers the ability to empower themselves
At last week’s 52nd Annual Convention I had the opportunity to interview some of the delegates on the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill unfortunately overshadowed by the health care debate, but nonetheless a critical priority for labor. Here’s what some of them said:
“I support the Employee Free Choice [...]