“When I look at the years we’ve been fighting for health care and what it means for working families to start down the path of comprehensive reform, I know the time to step forward is now,” said AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka in a video message to working families announcing the AFL-CIO will support final passage of health care reform:

“If you need any proof, just look at what the insurance companies are doing. They’re all over Capitol Hill trying to stop this bill. They know it’s a game changer for them, and that’s what we need.”

The reconciled bill the House will vote on this weekend isn’t perfect because it’s the result of a long legislative process involving a lot of give-and-take, Trumka explained. “We don’t get to decide every detail,” he said, “but we get to act, and our actions have already made this a much better bill.”

According to an AFL-CIO Blog post, in a press conference call, Trumka told reporters:

“…we are realistic enough to know it’s time for the deliberations to stop and for progress to begin. And we are idealistic enough to believe this is an opportunity to change history we can’t afford to miss.

“Rising health care costs are crushing families and businesses. Middle-class families are losing health care coverage faster than any other group today.”

“This bill is a solid first step in changing that.”

A vote in the House of Representative is expected this weekend. Call your representative at 1-877-3-AFLCIO, and tell him or her to pass the health care reform bill.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has prepared for all 435 congressional districts a report that details “the impact of the legislation on families, small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured.”

Click the name of your member of Congress below to get a report for your district (opens PDF file):

• G. K. Butterfield (NC-1)
• Bob Etheridge (NC-2)
• Walter B. Jones (NC-3)
• David E. Price (NC-4)
• Virginia Foxx (NC-5)
• Howard Coble (NC-6)
• Mike McIntyre (NC-7)
• Larry Kissell (NC-8)
• Sue Wilkins Myrick (NC-9)
• Patrick T. McHenry (NC-10)
• Heath Shuler (NC-11)
• Melvin L. Watt (NC-12)
• Brad Miller (NC-13)

For example, let’s take the report for Heath Shuler’s district:

There are 209,000 households that could qualify for substantial tax credits ($5,800 for a family of four making $50,000 a year) when they buy insurance under the new health insurance exchange created by this bill.

There are 14,500 individuals without insurance in Shuler’s district who have pre-existing conditions like heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes who can no longer be denied coverage because of this bill.

There are 147,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Shuler’s district who will benefit from free preventive and wellness care, improving primary and coordinated care, and enhancing nursing home care provided in this bill. 12,000 beneficiaries in his district enter the Medicare Part D ‘donut hole’ each year. A typical beneficiary who enters the donut hole will see savings of over $700 in 2011 and over $3,000 by 2020.

There are 17,200 small businesses in Shuler’s district that could qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance to their employees and 18,300 small businesses that will be able to enter the insurance exchange, increasing their bargaining power with insurance companies.

There are 78,000 residents in Shuler’s district who currently do not have health insurance and will receive coverage under this bill.

There are 12 community health centers in the district that provide health care to the poor and medically underserved. These centers will receive $15.6 million in new assistance because of this legislation.

Take a look at the report for where you live, then call your representative at 1-877-3-AFLCIO, and tell him or her to pass the health care reform bill.

The Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan budget score keeper Democrats and Republicans alike depend on to tell them what impact bills have on the budget, released it’s report on the revised legislation to reform health care and health insurance – and it’s a huge money saver.

Comprehensive reform will cost the federal government $940 billion over 10 years, but the cost is more than made up for by increases in revenue and reduced costs. The result is a net savings of $130 billion over 10 years.

That’s worth repeating for our readers who are concerned about our nation’s rising debt: doing nothing costs more than passing this bill. If you or your member of Congress has been withholding support of this legislation for fear we cannot afford it, the CBO report should lay those fears to rest.

Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu were in Durham this week to promote the stimulus bill’s clean-energy tax credit and to tout the accomplishments of Cree, a manufacturer of LED lighting.

Because of a $39 million tax credit, Cree has been able to hire 375 workers in the state since 2009. Cree has also been awarded $1.8 million in stimulus funds to pay for research and development, according to a report in the Durham Herald-Sun:

Biden praised the 23-year-old company for innovating, creating domestic jobs and manufacturing capacity and exporting its products around the world. “A company like Cree is a model for what we’re trying to do,” he said.

The vice president said the company and others like it are helping green jobs bolster prospects for the middle class.

“We want to make sure that everyone who aspires to be in the middle class can get there, and that those that get there can stay there,” Biden stated.

To Turn Around America, we have to become a country that leads the world in a new technological clean-energy revolution, one that will bring good-paying jobs like Cree is doing with help from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

At the event, Vice President Biden announced that even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has often been at odds with this administration, had just signed a letter asking Congress to expand the credit, and Biden defended the program against critics who would call it wasteful:

“We’ll get our money back in spades. We’ll get a return on this program that far exceeds any investment we make.”

On Thursday, March 25, 2010, working families will join together at Bank of America in Raleigh to demand good jobs now. America needs 11 million jobs, and big Wall Street banks should pay to rebuild jobs and the economy they helped destroy in 2008.

Since the recession began, America has lost nearly 9 million jobs. While Americans have lost jobs, homes, retirement savings, and hope, Wall Street banks took billions in taxpayer bailouts – and returned to business as usual.

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In 2009 alone, Wall Street banks paid their executives $145 billion in pay and bonuses. Now they’re spending millions lobbying to kill financial reform.

Good Jobs Now: Make Wall Street Pay events led by the AFL-CIO are taking place across the country. Find out more at www.aflioc.org/createjobs.

In Asheville:

What: Make Wall Street Pay To Restore Jobs targeting Bank of America and Wachovia
When: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:00 noon
Where: Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville, NC

For more information about the Asheville action, contact Western NC CLC President, Mark Case 828-215-8883.

In Raleigh:

What: Informational Picket targeting Bank of America
When: Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 11:30 am
Where: Bank of America, 321 Oberlin Rd, Raleigh, NC

For more information about the Raleigh action, contact Triangle Labor Council President, Michael Gravinese at 919-833-6678.

Fill it out, mail it back, and working families in N.C. will be better for it for the next 10 years! Click below to learn more:

Every ten years, the Constitution of the United States gives every individual in America the chance to do one thing that will shape his or her life and the lives of everyone they know at every level of government for the next decade – be counted in the census.

Being counted is easy to do. Ten questions in ten minutes is all it takes to complete the 2010 Census. Fill it out, mail it back in the postage-paid envelope, and that’s it. Simple and patriotic!

Workers, Jobs, and the Census

It’s important, too! Our allies at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice have published a helpful fact-sheet (PDF), which explains the many reasons why an accurate census count is important to working families, worker empowerment, and job creation. For example:

“North Carolina received over $261 million in census-allocated federal funds in 2008 alone for job-training and related programs. The amount of funding NC receives [...] is based on the number of people counted in the most recent US Census — the more people counted by the Census, the more money NC receives [for these programs].”

The population count the 2010 Census provides will determine if our state and your community receives its fair share of federal resources and representation in the United States Congress. In fact, the results will be used to redraw electoral districts at every level of government.

A complete count also will help companies decide where to build new facilities, help governments decide where to offer new services like job training centers, and will determine state-by-state GDP per capita and poverty data – information used in everything from the provision of health care to school funding and more.

Census forms are arriving now

Check your mail box. Chances are your letter carrier has already delivered your 2010 Census form. Census day is April 1, 2010 – so be sure to fill it out and mail it back by then.

For more information about the 2010 Census, visit 2010.census.gov.

Health Care for America Now – North Carolina members and supporters will rally in Charlotte this Saturday and march to end health care discrimination. Folks will gather at the Greater Mt. Moriah Primitive Baptist Church and then march to Charlotte Square.

What: March and rally to support HCR passage
When: This Saturday, March 20 – 11:00 to march, 12 noon – 3:00pm for the rally
Where: March from Greater Mt. Moriah Primitive Baptist
Church, 727 West Trade St. Charlotte, NC, to the rally spot at Charlotte Square (corner of Trade and Tryon).

This event is sponsored by the Charlotte Health Care Coalition. Supporters include the NAACP, AFL-CIO and Southern Piedmont Central Labor Council, Workers United/SEIU, State Employee Association of NC (SEANC), and MoveOn.org, among others.

Download the flyer for this event. Click here to RSVP for this event.

For more information, contact Kojo Nantambu at 704-599-8904 or Carla Cunningham at 704-509-2939.

Senior management at the United States Postal Service is asking the Congress to sign off on its plans to eliminate six-day mail delivery service.

Click here to support six-day mail delivery.

Your brothers and sisters in the American Postal Worker Union (and in the National Association of Letter Carriers) need your help:

The APWU is asking union members to contact their U.S. Representatives and encourage them to co-sponsor House Resolution 173, which urges the Postal Service to continue to provide mail delivery six days per week.

The resolution, which was introduced by Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), expresses the “sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of its six-day mail delivery service.” The Postal Service is asking Congress to reduce the number of mail delivery days required by law from six days per week to five.

In a message to legislative activists, Legislative and Political Director Myke Reid warns that, if accepted by Congress, five-day delivery would begin a “death spiral” for the USPS. “In addition to the thousands of jobs lost, there will undoubtedly be an erosion of confidence in the Postal Service’s ability to provide the services the public relies on.”

“Mail delivery is not only a vital part of the national economy, but also provides the timely delivery of needed goods and services to all segments of society,” the message notes.

“People currently depend on the Postal Service to provide those services, and if we don’t, they will find someone else who will,” Reid cautions.

Click here to ask your U.S. representative to support House Resolution 173.