Debunking Canadian health care myths

By Rhonda Hackett

As a Canadian living in the United States for the past 17 years, I am frequently asked by Americans and Canadians alike to declare one health care system as the better one.

Often I'll avoid answering, regardless of the questioner's nationality. To choose one or the other system usually translates into a heated discussion of each one's merits, pitfalls, and an intense recitation of commonly cited statistical comparisons of the two systems.

Because if the only way we compared the two systems was with statistics, there is a clear victor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to dispute the fact that Canada spends less money on health care to get better outcomes.

Yet, the debate rages on. Indeed, it has reached a fever pitch since President Barack Obama took office, with Americans either dreading or hoping for the dawn of a single-payer health care system. Opponents of such a system cite Canada as the best example of what not to do, while proponents laud that very same Canadian system as the answer to all of America's health care problems. Frankly, both sides often get things wrong when trotting out Canada to further their respective arguments.

As America comes to grips with the reality that changes are desperately needed within its health care infrastructure, it might prove useful to first debunk some myths about the Canadian system. 



Myth: Taxes in Canada are extremely high, mostly because of national health care.

In actuality, taxes are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Overall, Canada's taxes are slightly higher than those in the U.S. However, Canadians are afforded many benefits for their tax dollars, even beyond health care (e.g., tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education), so the end result is a wash. At the end of the day, the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82 percent of their gross pay. In the U.S., that average is 81.9 percent. 



Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy.

The U.S. has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world. More than 31 percent of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc. The provincial single-payer system in Canada operates with just a 1 percent overhead. Think about it. It is not necessary to spend a huge amount of money to decide who gets care and who doesn't when everybody is covered. 



Myth: The Canadian system is significantly more expensive than that of the U.S.

Ten percent of Canada's GDP is spent on health care for 100 percent of the population. The U.S. spends 17 percent of its GDP but 15 percent of its population has no coverage whatsoever and millions of others have inadequate coverage. In essence, the U.S. system is considerably more expensive than Canada's. Part of the reason for this is uninsured and underinsured people in the U.S. still get sick and eventually seek care. People who cannot afford care wait until advanced stages of an illness to see a doctor and then do so through emergency rooms, which cost considerably more than primary care services. 



What the American taxpayer may not realize is that such care costs about $45 billion per year, and someone has to pay it. This is why insurance premiums increase every year for insured patients while co-pays and deductibles also rise rapidly.



Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it.

While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be. 



There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don't get one no matter what your doctor thinks — unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost. 



Myth: There are long waits for care, which compromise access to care.

There are no waits for urgent or primary care in Canada. There are reasonable waits for most specialists' care, and much longer waits for elective surgery. Yes, there are those instances where a patient can wait up to a month for radiation therapy for breast cancer or prostate cancer, for example. However, the wait has nothing to do with money per se, but everything to do with the lack of radiation therapists. Despite such waits, however, it is noteworthy that Canada boasts lower incident and mortality rates than the U.S. for all cancers combined, according to the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group and the Canadian Cancer Society. Moreover, fewer Canadians (11.3 percent) than Americans (14.4 percent) admit unmet health care needs. 



Myth: Canadians are paying out of pocket to come to the U.S. for medical care.

Most patients who come from Canada to the U.S. for health care are those whose costs are covered by the Canadian governments. If a Canadian goes outside of the country to get services that are deemed medically necessary, not experimental, and are not available at home for whatever reason (e.g., shortage or absence of high tech medical equipment; a longer wait for service than is medically prudent; or lack of physician expertise), the provincial government where you live fully funds your care. Those patients who do come to the U.S. for care and pay out of pocket are those who perceive their care to be more urgent than it likely is.

Myth: Canada is a socialized health care system in which the government runs hospitals and where doctors work for the government.

Princeton University health economist Uwe Reinhardt says single-payer systems are not "socialized medicine" but "social insurance" systems because doctors work in the private sector while their pay comes from a public source. Most physicians in Canada are self-employed. They are not employees of the government nor are they accountable to the government. Doctors are accountable to their patients only. More than 90 percent of physicians in Canada are paid on a fee-for-service basis. Claims are submitted to a single provincial health care plan for reimbursement, whereas in the U.S., claims are submitted to a multitude of insurance providers. Moreover, Canadian hospitals are controlled by private boards and/or regional health authorities rather than being part of or run by the government.

Myth: There aren't enough doctors in Canada. 



From a purely statistical standpoint, there are enough physicians in Canada to meet the health care needs of its people. But most doctors practice in large urban areas, leaving rural areas with bona fide shortages. This situation is no different than that being experienced in the U.S. Simply training and employing more doctors is not likely to have any significant impact on this specific problem. Whatever issues there are with having an adequate number of doctors in any one geographical area, they have nothing to do with the single-payer system.



And these are just some of the myths about the Canadian health care system. While emulating the Canadian system will likely not fix U.S. health care, it probably isn't the big bad "socialist" bogeyman it has been made out to be. 



It is not a perfect system, but it has its merits. For people like my 55-year-old Aunt Betty, who has been waiting for 14 months for knee-replacement surgery due to a long history of arthritis, it is the superior system. Her $35,000-plus surgery is finally scheduled for next month. She has been in pain, and her quality of life has been compromised. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Aunt Betty — who lives on a fixed income and could never afford private health insurance, much less the cost of the surgery and requisite follow-up care — will soon sport a new, high-tech knee. Waiting 14 months for the procedure is easy when the alternative is living in pain for the rest of your life. 

Rhonda Hackett of Castle Rock is a clinical psychologist.

Rhonda Hackett of Castle Rock is a Clinical Psychologist

Healthcare Rally

Public Option Now! Rally

Sen. Richard Lugar's District Office
Thursday, 9 Jul 2009, 12:00 PM
We will rally outside Senator Lugar's Valparaiso office.
Lets join our voices in support of a public option!

Address:
175 West Lincolnway, Suite G-1
Valparaiso, IN

"Never confuse motion with action."

Ben Franklin

Karl Malden 1912-2009 - Union Man

KARL MALDEN UNION QUOTE

"I am thrilled to be honored by the Screen Actors Guild because I've been with it for such a long time. The Screen Actors Guild is sort of a highfalutin name for a union, and this union was always wonderful to work for. For the rank-and-file of the union to honor me is the best compliment I can receive."

Conservatives and the Party of Death

Do we have pitiful priorities?

According to the National Priorities Project, the war in Iraq since 2001 has cost us about 684 billion dollars or an average of a little over 7 billion dollars per month and 5,000 U.S. deaths.

This mornings paper indicates that the Congressional Budget Office in an analysis released Thursday put the net cost of the congressional proposal for universal health care at 597 billion dollars over 10 years which would be about 5 billion dollars per month.

7 billion dollars per month to invade and occupy a country for eight years plus 5,000 dead.

Versus

5 billion dollars per month to reform our failed and cruel health care system for the people of the United States for 10 years and saving countless lives.

You be the judge.

Samuel Gompers Monument

Although I’m not a student of Samuel Gompers, there’s something about his life that has fascinated me.

Just about every time I go to Washington D.C. I at least think of getting some photographs of the Samuel Gompers monument, but something always messes up the attempt. Once, I had no camera. Once the camera I had didn’t have fresh batteries, and once, although photos were taken, I just didn’t get them.

While attending the Alliance for Retired Americans legislative conference June 15-18, Elaine and I arrived on June 14 by train and she advised me to see what was most important that first day, otherwise I might not have time later in the week, so off we went.

Next time you’re in Washington, and have a few extra minutes, you might think about visiting it. It’s not far from the Washington Hilton and Towers hotel, and is located near 11th and Massachusetts Avenue, NW.

Franken makes it 60 in the Senate

Finally, Minnesota has two Senators. Al Franken soon to be seated in Senate giving workers a super majority.
Congratulations Al.

Keep that change out of your ash tray

RNC’s Michael Steele Becomes Union Man

By Leo W. Gerard
International President of the United Steelworkers Union

Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele appears to be suffering philosophical identity confusion, you know, like some people experience sexual identity confusion.
He’s got an organization named United STEELE Workers Union, white hardhat emblem and all, collecting members for him on Facebook. It had 255 worldwide as of June 19.
This is disconcerting on so many levels, least of which is that I head the original, authentic United Steelworkers Union (USW). It has, by the way, 1.2 million retired and active members in North America.
Far more importantly, Steele historically has expressed hostility toward unions. When President Obama agreed to help General Motors restructure in bankruptcy, for example, Steele said it was “another handout to the union cronies who helped bankroll his presidential campaign.” Now that there’s a union created in his own image, if Steele slams labor organizations, is he criticizing himself? Has he become a “union crony?”
Steele can perch that white hard hat atop his head, but he’s going to have to labor at learning some hard philosophical lessons before becoming a real steelworker, a true union man.
A union brother or sister knows it’s all for one and one for all. Our union brothers and sisters don’t see themselves as “ownership society” islands. That’s because they know when the sun stops shining, it’s nice to have union siblings to help clean up after the hurricane.
To join, Steele must learn that a union man has his brother’s back; he doesn’t stab him in the back. This may be a tough lesson for the Republican. Consider, for example, what Mark Bergeron, the STEELE Worker Union Facebook group administrator, says on his blog about the party’s 2008 nominee for president:
“How far to the left do we as Conservatives go to satisfy some of our Moderate ( Liberal ) Republicans? What sacrifices will we make to the Moderates? Abortion? Illegal Immiration [sic], a little more Socialism? Less Fiscal Responsibility? My point is that we have already made concessions to these softies and we got John McCain.”
In addition to insulting McCain, that smacks of exclusion. It is the Republican Party wringing itself out, shedding diversity at the insistence of its most conservative, self-appointed, over-amplified leader, Rush Limbaugh. So it has been reduced to little more than wealthy white protestant males — and wannabes. A union, by contrast, is a collective. By nature, then, it is inclusive. This may be a tough one for Steele to accept, considering he refused to stand up to Limbaugh earlier this year when the talk show host insisted he, not Steele, headed the Republican Party.
The STEELE Worker Union Facebook site says the group is interested in organizing. That’s a great first step in the correct direction. An important function of an international union, like the United Steelworkers, is to help employees at individual workplaces organize their local unions. Those efforts in recent years, however, have been thwarted by corporate campaigns of intimidation against union organizers and sympathizers. This is documented in a study called, “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organization,” released in May by Cornell University professor, Kate Bronfenbrenner.
Bronfenbrenner, who has researched labor issues for a quarter century, documents employers obstructing unionization by firing union organizers, threatening to close down the shop, cutting wages and benefits, and forcing workers to meet one-on-one with supervisors who interrogate them to determine whether they support the union. Bronfenbrenner found employers conducted these coercive tactics, many of which are illegal, in the run-up to union elections more frequently than in the past to dissuade workers from voting for unionization.
The upshot is that organizers and union sympathizers risk their livelihoods and corporations are increasingly killing unions. The Employee Free Choice Act now before Congress would significantly reduce that. It would allow workers — rather than the employer — to decide how to form the union. It would give workers the right to choose whether to form their union by collecting signatures from a majority of the workers or by conducting a secret ballot election. The threat-filled period before balloting could be eliminated, if the workers wanted.
The United Steelworkers union actively and vociferously supports the Employee Free Choice Act. If Michael Steele wants to be a real union man, he must do so as well. I will be waiting to hear from him. If I do, I will be glad to take him under my wing and mentor him. I will make him an Associate Member of the real United Steelworkers union. We will embrace him. Of course, I will warn my male members to be careful not to actually hug him because this is a guy, so touchy about unions, that he even used the word “crazy” to describe civil unions.

Health Care Reform....NOW

The Rejerklicans are doing everything in their power to stop health care reform from becoming a reality. Do you have health insurance. If so, great. But don't let that stop you from doing all you can to make these stinking politicians understand that our country needs it now.
If you go to the website below, you can type in your town and see what some of the problems are close to home.

Click Here

Graham and McCain - go back home where you belong

The people of the United States want and need health care reform. U.S. Senators John McCain and Linsey Graham should shut their traps where Iran is concerned and work on getting a public health care option. These Repugnicans seem to be completely without any understanding of what their job is.
The American people rejected John McCain and his warring tendencies and they sure don't want this country to stir the pot where Iran is concerned. Over the years, we've done enough of that and it always seems to backfire. Senator Linsey Graham should keep his mouth shut and read a history book.

Retirees On the Move for Healthcare Reform

Last week the Alliance for Retired Americans met for their Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.. Nearly six hundred retirees attended several workshops during the week and lobbied Congress members and Senators urging them to support our agenda for healthcare reform. The Alliance for Retired Americans believes that any health care reform passed by Congress must:

* Allow Medicare to negotiate volume discounts with drug manufacturers. The Veterans Administration does this and its prescriptions cost 30 percent less.
* End wasteful taxpayer subsidies to private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage programs at a cost nearly 20 percent higher than Medicare.
* Provide early retirees the option to purchase Medicare coverage. Many of the 5.1 million Americans between 55-64 who lack health insurance are victims of mass layoffs.
* Close the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage.

On June 25th, 2009, thousands of grassroots people will descend on Washington, DC to lobby every Member of Congress in support of quality, affordable health care for all. We will also have a rally at 11:30 in Upper Senate Park and following there will be lobby activities in various locations.

Delegations of community leaders from over 40 states are attending in order to meet with key Members of Congress. The people comprising these groups include small business owners, rural representatives, faith leaders, health care providers, union members, SOAR members and members of the Alliance for Retired Americans.

"Cash for Clunkers" passes Senate

The Senate passed legislation that would provide vouchers to consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for more fuel-efficient models. This program will get consumers back into the showroom and boost auto sales.

This legislation was modeled after Germany’s scrap program which led to a 21 percent surge in auto sales in February 2009, compared to a 22 percent decline in the United Kingdom for the same period. Similar programs have now been implemented in 12 European countries and have helped drive up auto sales across the continent.

The legislation will now go to the president’s desk for his signature.

Source: The Donnelly Dispatch

USW Rapid Response: Leading the Way on the Employee Free Choice Act!

The Employee Free Choice Act is at a critical point. A majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate are supportive. The President is willing to sign it into law. But, in the Senate, a process exists to talk a bill to death – “the filibuster” – and a Republican-led effort to kill the bill through this process is planned. To stop a filibuster, 60 votes are needed. We are just short of that goal.

As disappointed as we are with the Senators who have not stepped up in this fight, we are not letting up for a minute.

USW Activists in Key States Working Hard

Right now, USW members are continuing to keep up the pressure. In places like Pennsylvania, Arkansas and California, USW members are taking action again and again to target those Senators who haven’t yet given their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. This fight is coming down to a few key places across the country.

Senators Meeting to Address Issues; Vote Could Occur Within Weeks

While we’re working on the ground, there is a group of Senators meeting to look at alternatives to the bill. We don’t know what the outcome of these talks will produce, but we remain committed to passing real labor law reform. Senator Harkin, who is leading this fight as Senator Kennedy deals with health issues, has vowed to either find a solution that works to get to 60 votes, or force those unsupportive Senators to take a vote on the original measure. This way, we know where they stand come election time. Either way, the vote could occur this summer, possibly within weeks.

As this situation continues to play out, we will keep you posted on any major developments. Thank you to everyone for being so diligent over the years on this issue. And, for those of you in key states, thank you for continuing to fight for all of us for justice in the workplace.

Source: USW Rapid Response

U.S. Treasury Department Screws GM Retirees and Actives

U.S. Treasury Department treats USW/IUE-CWA/IAM/ and Teamster retirees differently then UAW retirees. General Motors and the UAW agreed to fund current and future retiree health care through a Voluntary Employee Benefit Association Trust (VEBA) fund. As part of the bankruptcy process the Trust was partially funded with cash and the balance through GM stock of the new company.

General Motors agreed in principal to fund a VEBA for the other unions that represent workers in their facilities but the Treasury Department intervened and halted the process. This intervention prevents about 50,000 current and future retirees from receiving health care coverage they were promised by General Motors. Rather than receiving the benefits they deserve the workers represented by these other unions are thrown into the bankruptcy process as unsecured creditors. This essentially wipes out any chance of these current and future retirees of ever receiving health care benefits from General Motors.

The unions referenced above are fighting this injustice. We need your help!

Please contact your elected representatives and demand that all GM current and future retirees be treated the same as the UAW retirees.

I don't like being kept in the dark

I have never had a particular desire to travel to Cuba and I still don't. I do, however, want the right to travel anywhere, including Cuba.
I know Canadians who go to Cuba every year. I think I should have the right to visit that country without going through all of the hassle that is required today.
Is there something about Cuba that our government is trying to hide from us? It seems to me that our government is trying to hide a little too much from us.
Another thing is the evidence concerning the United States use of torture. I want to know and see the truth.
Too much being hidden these days. It's best to let it all see the light of day. Put it all out there and accept the consequences.

Proof of Need for Employee Free Choice Act

South of Valparaiso, Indiana is a small town called Wheatfield where a Georgia Pacific Gypsum plant is located.

The workers at this factory desired union representation and voted to be represented by the United Steelworkers Union. They began negotiating with Georgia Pacific for their first contract but just couldn’t get the company to negotiate in good faith. In the mean time, Georgia Pacific illegally fired one employee and illegally disciplined other workers.

Georgia Pacific hoped that the workers would tire of the long fight for justice and give up. They didn’t.
Over two years later, an agreement was finally reached.

This is the type of labor laws that the Chamber of Commerce and the nutty Republicans want to continue.

There is no good reason in the world for a company to be able to stall and delay and refuse to bargain in good faith with their workers --only bad reasons. That being to make the workers believe that their being united has no meaning. That it’s all futile and hopeless. That they should give up and change their minds.

The Employee Free Choice Act would put a quick stop to this unfairness. It would require that a company pay through the nose when they break the law. It would require that a company negotiate in good faith and that an agreement be reached in a reasonable length of time.

Although Indiana Senator Evan Bayh supported the Employee Free Choice Act two years ago, he is now withholding his support.

Please call Senator Bayh Toll Free at 1-866-207-2060 and ask him to co-sponsor and vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. Employees deserve the right to bargain with their employer for secure jobs, health care, and retirement benefits and fair pay.

Our country needs a strong middle class and the Employee Free Choice Act the one way to get it.

Outrageous!!

Governor’s Budget Cuts $8 Million From
CHOICE Program

Calls Urgently Needed

Call your State Senator and State Representative Today!

“Keep funding for the CHOICE Home Care
Program at $48.7 million in each of the
next two years!”

Thousands of seniors and persons with disabilities will be forced
into institutions if cuts are made to the CHOICE Home Care
Program. And, taxpayers will pay millions more.

Governor Daniels has set Thursday, June 11th for the General
Assembly to convene in Special Session.

Don’t wait—call or email your legislators today.

For Calls:
House Switchboard: 1-800-382-9842 or 317-232-9600
Senate Switchboard: 1-800-382-9467 or 317-232-9400
TDD: 1-800-548-9517 or 317-232-0404

For Email:
House: h##@in.gov
(## = your district number. In the case of a single digit number, type only that number.
For example: If you live in House District 8, you type: h8@in.gov)

Senate: s##@in.gov
(## = your district number. In the case of a single digit number, type only that number.
For example: If you live in Senate District 8, you type: s8@in.gov)

Don’t know who your legislators are or their district numbers?
Contact United Senior Action (317-634-0872 or info@usaindiana.org).

Source: United Senior Action of Indiana

Retired with a little extra time? Try Delivering Meals on Wheels

Since retiring eleven years ago, one of the most rewarding activities I’ve participated in has been delivering meals to home bound seniors. For those of you who are retired and have just a little extra time, please consider contacting the Council of Ageing in your community and volunteering to deliver a meal to someone unable to get out and who struggles to continue living in their home. If you don’t have enough time to do it on a regular basis, you can be put on a list to be called in an emergency.……you’ll be very glad you did.

They Fought Then - We Fight Now

Having hired into, and retired from, a company where a local union already existed and whose workers already had a contract, I can’t fully appreciate what it must be like for workers to organize and then have their company refuse to recognize them as a union or to refuse to bargain, eventually to result in such a tragedy as that which took place at Republic Steel in South Chicago on May 30, 1937, the day we memorialize today. I can, however…….imagine.

Unfortunately, workers today face the same determination of companies to remain “union free” albeit with somewhat less violence.

My own experience was in 1980, when members of USWA Local 12775 and 13796 were forced to strike the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) for 242 days. Billed as the longest utility strike in American history at the time, it was a dispute where getting a contract seemed futile. That experience will be in my memory forever.

Not long after President Reagan’s firing of the PATCO workers, former USWA President Lynn Williams, with the help of the Steelworkers Union, formed the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, (S.O.A.R.). Our organization is made up of thousands of Steelworker Retirees who have experienced similar labor disputes with companies that have refused to bargain.

Today, companies continue to fight workers attempts to organize. Not only do they unlawfully fire labor leaders, knowing that the cost of back pay is, to them, a small price to pay to stay “union free”, but they use intimidation, scare tactics and threats of moving or closing the plant, and when workers do elect representation, many times a company will refuse to negotiate a contract with them.

On top of that, when workers are forced to strike a company, they are faced with the hiring of permanent replacement workers.

NiSource is the parent company of NIPSCO and owner of the Northern Indiana Fuel and Light Company (NIFL). The workers at NIFL organized their union in January of 2005 and negotiated with the company for over a year, and yet they still had no contract. It was a disgrace.

Workers in the United States have had a belly full. The United Steelworkers and SOAR are supporting legislation that would address these problems. It’s called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and I urge everyone to support it by asking their U.S. Senators to co-sponsor this legislation.

The working families at the Republic Steel plant in south Chicago helped set the stage for what is today the largest, strongest, most powerful industrial union in North America. It was the determination and guts of the founders of our great union in places like Republic Steel that gives today’s Steelworkers and members of SOAR that sense of resolve and the fortitude needed to continue in that same tradition. Remembering those who lost their lives and suffered from the massacre itself is, of course, very important. However, it was the determination of the workers after the event, never giving up the fight for recognition that gives us the resolve to “never give up on justice”. We are activists with a memory.

Building SOAR to increase our strength on senior issues is a high priority for our union. With the anti-union attitude of the far right wing in the United States today, there is nothing more important to our retirees than having a strong voice representing their interests. By becoming more active in the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), we can make our voices heard more powerfully in the struggle to protect and extend the rights of retirees.

Charlie Averill, SOAR Secretary-Treasurer

Celebrate the Memory

Click on the above flyer to enlarge it

Medicare = Health Care

Sonia Sotomayor is a great choice

How do I know?
Here's proof.
Hannity says she is a judicial activist.
Limbaugh says she's a racist.
Carl Rove says she is stupid.
Remember this....

Whatever the right wingers say, the very opposite is true.

Therefore, She will make a great Supreme Court Justice.

G.NO.P. - Still the Party of NO

Congressman of the Year

GRAYSON PROPOSES FIRST-EVER PAID VACATION LAW

May 21, 2009

(Washington, DC) – In a bold and historic move to help rejuvenate the American economy, Congressman Alan Grayson introduced the Paid Vacation Act of 2009 today. The bill will dramatically improve productivity at American companies and provide a much-needed spark for the U.S. travel and tourism industries.

Congressman Grayson said, “Why are paid vacations good enough for the Chinese, French, Japanese, and German employees, but not good enough for us? In other countries, it’s a matter of right. Everyone is entitled to it. In our country, it is a matter of class. Over time we are coming to realize that whatever your background, wherever you grew up, wherever you live, there are certain basic elements that people need to have enjoyable lives. They need health care. They need a decent paying job. And for a good life, they need time off.”

The Paid Vacation Act will require at least one week of paid vacation for employees at companies with at least 100 employees. Full- and part-time (25 hours per week/1250 hours per year) workers will be eligible after one year of service.

Three years after enactment, companies with at least 50 employees would be required to offer at least one week of paid vacation, and companies with at least 100 employees would be required to offer at least two weeks of paid vacation.

John De Graaf from “Take Back Your Time” points to a recent story in FORBES Magazine. It showed that the U.S. is not even among the top ten countries in the world in terms of happiness. “Those higher-ranked countries emphasize a work-life balance, including ample vacation time. Many of those same countries are weathering the current world economic storm better than we are. Vacations make people happier and economies stronger,” he said.

A poll, conducted last year by the Opinion Research Corporation, found that 29 percent of American workers got no paid vacation at all last year, and half received less than a week off.

The Paid Vacation Act of 2009 would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which means enforcement will be handled by the Department of Labor and U.S. Attorney’s Office, just like all federal wage and hour laws in the country.
grayson.house.gov

PAID VACATION FAST FACTS

How the United States of America compares:
• The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a minimum annual leave statute.
• At least 147 countries have a paid vacation law, including all developed countries.
• In 1980 Americans ranked 11th in the world in life expectancy. We are now 42nd.
• Americans are twice as likely as Europeans to suffer from anxiety and depression, and many experts believe these deficits are caused by lack of time.
• Every European worker gets at least four weeks of paid vacation by law, yet the Euro is rising while the dollar is falling.

Americans are taking fewer (and shorter) vacations:
• PEW Research Center says "more free time" is the number one priority for middle-class Americans—68% listed this as a high priority for them.
• Last year only 14% of American workers took two weeks or more for vacation (Conference Board Study, 2008).
• The average American works one month (160 hours) more today than in 1976 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
• Last year about half (52%) of American workers took a vacation of a week or less (Opinion Research Corporation, 2008).
• 28% of Americans receive no paid vacation. Only 69% of lower-wage workers get any paid vacation leave (Opinion Research Corporation, 2008).
• 37% of American women earning less than $40,000 a year receive no paid annual leave (AFL-CIO, 2005).

Health:
• Men who do not take regular vacations are 32% more likely to die of heart attacks, and 21% more likely to die early of all causes. Women have 50% more risk of heart attack (Dr. Brooks Gump, SUNY Oswego, 2000).
• Stress and burnout are five times more costly to treat than average workplace maladies.
• Women who do not take vacations are twice as likely to be depressed as those who do (Cathy McCarty, Marshfield Clinic, 2006).

Business Development:
• Stress and burnout at work cost the U.S. economy more than $344 billion a year (Middle Tennessee State University, 2003).
• Vacations can result in an 82% increase in performance (Mark Rosekind, Alertness Solutions).
• Vacations of at least two weeks eliminate burnout (Hobfoll, Shirom, 1993).
• The travel industry adds $740 billion dollars a year to the U.S. economy (U.S. Travel Association).
• People have a 60% increase in productivity in the month or two after a vacation (Wallace Huffman, Iowa State University).
• Paid vacation, after health care, is the benefit most appreciated by workers (AFL-CIO, 2005).
• Workers sleep better after taking vacations and are 30-40% more alert on the job when they return (Air New Zealand).
Source: Congressman Garyson's website

Where Have All The Republicans Gone?

I don't think there has been a good Republican since maybe Dwight Eisenhower. Ike was the last. I liked Ike.
Now, Dick Cheeney is the modern day republican.
Disgusting.
As a child, I knew, as did all my friends that torture was wrong and it was something only our enemies did. Torture is still wrong. We all know it.
Does torture work? Dick Cheeney wants to claim that torture works and therefore it's ok to do.
Shameful.

Artists for Workers Choice

GM to American Workers: Pay for Your Own Execution

by Leo W. Gerard

The proposition General Motors has presented to the United Auto Workers and American taxpayers in its latest restructuring plan is simple: You must pay for your own execution.

GM, which already took $15.4 billion in bailout money, wants another $11.6 billion and is offering in return this deal: It will close 16 of its American manufacturing plants, terminate 21,000 of its factory workers and double the cars it builds in low-wage Mexico, China and South Korea and ships back to the U.S. to sell.

There it is: GM is demanding that Americans pay to send their own jobs overseas.

In the world where corporate executives live, the one in which boards of directors grant CEOs multi-million dollar bonuses even after companies tank, maybe that's not a perverse proposition.

But in the world where real Americans live, we've had enough of this crap. Decades of foolish tax and other federal policies that encouraged American manufacturing firms to throw Americans out of work and expatriate were bad enough. To expect American taxpayers to bankroll GM's plans to layoff American workers and move their jobs overseas goes too far.

We're taking a stand. It's gotta stop here. The United Steelworkers (USW), the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) and the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition (MMAC) are conducting an 11-state, 32-city protest bus tour. At each stop so far, hundreds of people have cheered our message: "Keep it Made in America." And they've signed our petition calling for support of a simple idea: Buy it here; build it here.

We will present the petitions at a teach-in conference in Washington, D.C. on May 19 when we will explain to elected officials why GM's plan fails America and why they must require GM to submit a new plan supporting American jobs.

As much as for the UAW, this is a life and death struggle for the USW, American manufacturing, and for millions of Americans in good-paying jobs. Without manufacturing, America is in danger of attempting to subsist on an economy based on nothing more than amorphous derivatives, credit default swaps and Ponzi schemes. The Steelworkers represent hundreds of thousands of workers whose jobs depend on the auto industry, from steelworkers who make the steel, to the rubber workers who make the tires, to the glass workers who make the windshields, to the paper workers who make the glossy pamphlets.

Altogether, more than 7 million paychecks depend on the U.S. auto industry, including healthcare, education, service, retail and other jobs. This bus tour is about preserving those jobs, all of those jobs.

In just the past eight months of this recession, caused in huge part by recklessness on Wall Street, this country has lost 1.2 million manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. GM cannot take tax dollars to slash more. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich agrees. Here's what he told the Washington Post, ". . . it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?"

It's not as if it's impossible for a U.S. auto company to manufacture here. Ford Motor Co., which is not taking any bailout money, is investing $500 million in retooling its Michigan Truck plant outside Detroit so that it can make small cars that it will sell worldwide, including its next-generation, battery-electric Focus. And Chrysler, which is getting bailout money, has made a deal with Fiat under which the Italian car company will manufacture a small car in one of Chrysler's U.S. assembly facilities, which, along with other long-term commitments, will eventually create 4,000 U.S. jobs.

On the first day of the bus tour, I was joined by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover, the angriest mayor in the U.S., Virg Bernero of Lansing, and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, among others.

The Rev. Jackson drew cheers as he remarked that somehow we've given billions to the "banksters," yet somehow we're still hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs and homes each month. He called for a moratorium on foreclosures and plant closings, and I'm with him.

Bernero is tired of Wall Street describing his father, a retired auto worker, as a legacy cost. His father is a human being, a senior citizen, who worked hard every day of his life and returned home exhausted from an honest day's work. Now, however, Wall Street thinks it's fine to reduce him to a sub-human term and cheat him out of the retirement benefits he earned.

Bernero's father made things, real things that could be touched, held in the hand - not derivatives, not figments of the imagination that turned out to have less than no value at all.

Now Wall Street and GM must be made to understand that Main Street isn't going to take it anymore. We're not going to continue allowing corporate America to outsource the American dream. Bernero said it right: "This is America's fight."

Join us. Sign the petition. We have no intention of buying our own noose. We intend to win this fight.

The Recession Won't Bankrupt Social Security

The Recession Won’t Bankrupt Social Security

By NCPSSM April 1, 2009

Let’s start off by stating the obvious…unless you’re an economist or policy analyst, the details of Social Security’s funding mechanisms, trust fund operations (OASI & DI) and projection methodology for both, are far beyond what the average American knows (or even cares to know) about the program. Unfortunately, this is exactly why it’s so easy for those who want to see the program dismantled to continue their “Social Security is bankrupt” memo, regardless of the facts.

The latest headlines claim Social Security is running out of money to pay benefits because of the recession. This is based on CBO’s forecast included as part of its final budget projections and economic outlook. The headlines screamed: “Slowdown Slashes Social Security Surplus” and “Recession Puts a Major Strain on Social Security Trust Fund”.

Thankfully, the Associated Press provided a more thorough description of what’s actually happening. Here’s a brief summary of our full analysis now available on the National Committee website:

Social Security’s trust fund surplus is NOT disappearing.

What is happening is that the annual surpluses collected each year, which have been building up our current $2.5 trillion trust fund for decades, are below what was projected prior to the downturn in the economy. Less employed=fewer payroll taxes=lower annual surplus of contributions over expenditures. As our President Barbara Kennelly told Nightly Business Report this has nothing to do with the total assets/surplus still held in the Social Security Trust Fund:

This goes with previous post

Come to an event in your area:

Town Hall Rally
Where: 1520 Profit Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
When: Tuesday, May 12
Time: 4pm
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Where: Radisson Hotel Star Plaza
When: May 11, 2009
Merrillville, IN.
Time: 1:00 pm
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Town Hall Rally
Where: UAW LU# 685 Hall,
929 E. Hoffer St., Kokomo, IN., 46902
When: May 12, 2009
Time: 11:30 am- 1:30pm
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Town Hall Rally
Where: USW LU#3261 Hall,
356 West Broadway, Logansport, IN. 46947

When: May 12, 2009

Time: 9:00am- 10:00am
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Town Hall Rally
Where: UAW LU#5 Hall
1426 S. Main St. South Bend, IN 46613
When: Monday May, 11 2009
Time: 4:00 pm- 6:00pm

AAM/USW Auto Supply Chain Bus Tour Campaign

The Alliance for American Manufacturing and the United Steelworkers have partnered with the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition, elected officials, UAW, and the auto industry supply chain stakeholders to raise public awareness of the economic importance of the American auto industry supply chain. Our research shows that over seven million jobs are tied to the fate of the auto industry beyond the direct employment and economic impact of auto production and assembly.

The campaign will deploy four coach buses during the week of May 11, 2009 (see routes on succeeding pages). Each bus will operate for three days and make at least nine stops for a total of at least thirty six locations. The objective is to draw community and media attention to the importance of auto supply facilities to communities where they operate. Stops will be generally organized into three styles. One would be a stop at an operating auto supply facility where management and labor would explain and discuss the impact of that facility on its community. Second would be a stop at a city center location where elected officials would join us for the signing of a Buy American resolution and have a short program that details the supply chain importance to that region. There would be a town hall type meeting where we would recruit the general community, elected officials and our AAM/USW constituency to a program that has an educational component along with testimonials from impacted individuals and officials. All of these events would be seeking maximum earned media. We will take Polaroid pictures of participants, to which they will add a handwritten message to the Obama Administration supporting the auto supply chain. We would deliver those thousands of pictures and messages to Washington once the tours were completed. In conjunction with the bus tours, AAM and the USW would assure that each town we visited has enacted our Buy American resolution.

The buses would carry officials from AAM and the USW along with our partner elected officials and supply chain stakeholders. We will recruit individuals who can testify to the importance of the auto supply chain on a region's economy and have them participate in legs of the tours. We also will provide video, public relations and recruitment support prior to and during the tours, including arranging radio and television interviews along the way. We will also launch a frequently updated website to follow the progress of the tours. AAM staff will be deployed to each site to coordinate advance recruiting and logistics for each stop as well as program needs.

After the bus tours, AAM and the USW will hold an Auto Supply Chain Teach-In in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 2009. We are recruiting highly regarded experts, opinion makers, and a selected number of participants from the bus tours to attend this event. Its purpose would be to detail the economic impact of the American auto supply chain and call for an Auto Restructuring Plan that maximizes domestic production, automobile industry jobs, and retains sufficient American Automobile production capacity to take advantage of the eventual resurgence of automobile demand in America.

Click on above flyer to enlarge it
Click on bus schedule to enlarge it.
Bus stop locations to be announced.

What a Party

Republicans--more than "no," Republicans are the party of:

nowhere,

nothing, and

nonsense.

Source: USW website

Health care now

Click on the flyer to enlarge it

Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan is calling for a RALLY on May 20 in Indianapolis. As representatives of endorsing organizations of HCHP's single-payer efforts, we want you and your members to be there.
HCHP has chapters in seven Indiana cities now, and organizers in those cities are already recruiting people to come. We have speakers and music lined up to make a fuss at Monument Circle. We want to be heard on this issue to keep Washington from throwing more money at the
commercial insurers to solve the problem those insurers created. The flyer above has the details of the rally. Please duplicate it and distribute it to members of your organization.

Best, Milton Fisk for HCHP, 812-336-7184

The New Post-9/11 GI Bill

Starting today, veterans can apply online to receive education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The new education benefits package is the most comprehensive since the original GI Bill for World War II veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is now accepting and processing applications for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. You should complete and submit the application form available online and will receive a letter explaining VA’s decision regarding your eligibility for the program.

The application form requires that individuals currently eligible for benefits under the Montgomery GI BILL-Active Duty (MGIB-AD), Montgomery GI Bill-Selected Reserve (MGIB-SR) or the Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP) make an irrevocable election from their existing program to the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

For individuals eligible for MGIB-AD

Normally, your months of entitlement under the Post-9/11 GI Bill will be equal to the number of months of entitlement you have remaining under the MGIB-AD. However, if you use all of your MGIB-AD benefits, then you may be entitled to a maximum of 12 additional months of benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

For individuals eligible for MGIB-SR and/or REAP

Normally, individuals who are eligible for more than one benefit may use a maximum combined total of 48 months of benefits.

For example: If you have used 20 months of benefits under REAP, you may be eligible for 28 months of benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Payments for Post-9/11 GI Bill will not be processed until August 1, 2009.

Click here to access the application form which includes instructions for submitting completed applications.

Please share this information with your networks of veterans and military families.

Source: United States Department of Veterans Affairs Website

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Rally to Save American Jobs

Click on the flyer above to enlarge

Suggested transportation:

§ CTA Blue Line comes right to Federal Building

§ South Shore train from N.W. Indiana to Van Buren Station arrives at 1:17 p.m. and cost is $11.00 roundtrip, $5.50 for Seniors.

§ Van Buren train station is 5 blocks from Federal Plaza.

Russ Stilwell on Employee Free Choice

Representative Russ Stilwell is the Indiana State House Majority Leader and also a former member of the UMWA. A friend to labor, Representative Stilwell has always stood up for the working class of Indiana and now is no different. Rep. Stilwell understands why America needs the Employee Free Choice Act and is not shy about telling people.

“The opponents of this legislation, mainly big greedy corporations, think that after years of trampling all over workers rights that now we’re going to believe them when they say they want to protect their employees by forcing the secret ballot election process on them, that is just ridiculous,” said Stilwell. “We know better than to trust that these corporations have their employees best interests in mind, if they did they would allow their workers to organize if they wanted to. Not to mention the Employee Free Choice Act does not do away with the secret ballot, it just lets the employees decide if they want it or not.”

“I encourage all of you to get involved in this grassroots campaign,” urged Stilwell. “We need to write, call, and meet with our Senators and Representatives so they know that working families are counting on them to support the Employee Free Choice Act.”
Source: Indiana AFL-CIO

Unions and Rights

Chicago - In this wonderful Country of ours where freedom of speech is a tradition, the spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee abused the privilege with his confusion about unions, in his letter to the "Voice of the People" last week.

The truth about the Right to Work Committee's philosophy is the so-called right to work in a union shop getting:

• union wages and benefits
• union protection and security
• union representation, and
  
• union collective bargaining...

all without paying union dues.

Isn't that the same as:

• Getting the benefits of a community without paying taxes?
• Subscribing to the Tribune without paying the carrier?
• Being a member of a (religious) congregation without contributing?

If a worker does not want to pay union dues he has the free, American right to find a job where the workers have not elected to have a union. In this Great Country a citizen does not say the President is not my President because I did not vote for him. In this Great Country a worker should not be able to say I refuse to pay union dues because I did not vote for the union -- but I want the same wages, hours, benefits and job protection that the union negotiates for its dues-paying members.

Union members are citizens, voluntarily joined together by majority vote, for the benefit of them all. That, too, is an American tradition.

Lawrence Keller
The above letter was first published in the "Voice of the People" section of the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1984

Marijuana – what a beautiful plant it is.

Believe it or not, graduating from high school in 1961 and serving in the navy during the Vietnam era, and living several years in Starke County, Indiana, where the stuff is (so I’m told) growing all over the place, I just never did know what it looked like.

Then one day, a friend of mine brought the subject up and I mentioned that I’d like to grow a plant to see what it looked like. He brought me five seeds which I planted. The one that germinated first looked the most healthy, so I discarded the others and nurtured the one plant.
Eventually, after repotting it several times until it was finally in a pot about a foot in diameter, it reached the ceiling of my greenhouse. What a georgeous plant it was with such beautiful leaves.

I was going on vacation, so told my friend that he better come and get it. It wasn’t until later that I learned that growing the stuff was against the law.

What a stupid law, and what a dumb thing it is to try to eradicate it. The state police and sheriff’s office will dig and spray and burn, while the kids just follow them down the road and throw seeds out the car window.

What a waste of manpower and money.

It’s down right stupid to make illegal the growing of a plant that God put on this earth.

Most of the stuff that the law “eradicates” (about 98% of it, so I’m told) is just ditch weed and doesn’t contain the chemicals that would make a person high anyway.

Oh well, what a world we live in.

Unemployment Insurance Benefits at Risk

Click on Flyer to enlarge it.

Let’s make our voices heard – Please:
Get on the Bus and help us tell our
Representatives to protect benefits for
laid off workers!
Bus leaves McBride Hall at 6:00 A.M. sharp &
will return around 3:00 P.M. – a morning snack and a box lunch provided!
Seating on the bus is limited ACT NOW

Please call 219-886-2596 to reserve your spot on the bus.

Don’t forget that you will pass through metal detectors to enter government building.
Call Robin at 219-881-6224 if you have any questions regarding the trip.

CEO Pay A Bitter Pill for Seniors

Struggling to afford your medicines? Wondering where your prescription money goes? The AFL-CIO’s new Executive PayWatch web site, reports that much of it goes straight into the CEOs’ wallets. And I’m not just referring to the drug companies, either.

A few examples of annual pay:

Johnson & Johnson $29.1 million
Abbott Laboratories $28.3 million
Merck $25.1 million
Wyeth $24.2 million
NiSource $2.5 million

According to The New York Times, the 2003 Medicare Part D drug law has proven to be “a financial windfall larger than even the most optimistic Wall Street analysts have predicted.” The law prohibits Medicare from negotiating volume discounts with drug manufacturers, and as a result retirees in the now-privatized Part D plans pay 58% more than under plans administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs which is allowed to negotiate price discounts. NIPSCO retirees fall into this category.

Greedy CEO’s are ruining our country. Would NIPSCO see their way clear to increase the pensions of their retirees even the slightest? Hell no! Why? Because the genius bosses in charge of NiSource and NIPSCO under funded the pension plan. They’re the ones who have NIPSCO and NiSource reeling after their bad decisions. Well then, what about a small bonus to help retirees on Medicare pay for their lousy Medicare Part D (prescription drug plan)? Hell no! Why? Because their retirees “can’t help us out of this deep hole we’ve gotten ourselves in”.

A little $300 bonus paid to each of NIPSCO’s 2,150 retirees would amount to $645,000. That’s just about half of what this Skaggs fella took in as his increase in compensation. That’s right, 102% increase in his compensation. Over $2.5 million. But hey, I think he should have got 112% increase like his NiSource buddy board of directors.

And now……we can all look forward to their 15% increase in electric rates!

I’m not going to bother looking up the compensation of the cheapskate feather-their-own- nesters who run NIPSCO. No need. I have their quotes and know the value they place on the people who made that company. They're the ones who can't pay death benefits in a timely manner. They're the ones who speak with forked tongue. They're the ones who cheat their retirees.

I have no good words for the NIPSCO or NiSource........ Well, maybe one.

Pitiful

Are you unemployed?

Please share this website with someone you know who is out of work.
Thanks.
Charlie

Take a Break. Watch this video and come down to earth

Watch Susan Boyle sing.

Click here

You owe it to yourself

Robert C. Skaggs Jr., CEO of NiSource Inc.

According to the AFL-CIO Executive Pay Database:

Robert C. Skaggs Jr.
Chief Executive Officer
NiSource Inc.

In 2007, Robert C. Skaggs Jr. raked in $2,494,755 in total compensation. In the previous year the CEO of this company made $1,232,745. Total CEO compensation has increased by 102%.

NiSource is the parent company of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO).

By going to the Executive Pay Database, you can see how that compares with your wage.

Why Don't Bosses want the Employee Free Choice Act

Generations Must Stand United for Employee Free Choice Act

By Barbara J. Easterling
President, Alliance for Retired Americans

Our nation’s economic crisis is affecting nearly everyone. Unless you are getting one of those big Wall Street bonuses, you are probably struggling to pay your bills, keep your home, or afford to see a doctor or fill a prescription. There is no longer any doubt that the fundamentals of our economy are broken.

One way out of this mess – and a way to help both current and future retirees – is for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act recognizes that our middle class is in trouble because more and more, big corporations hold all the cards. As they lavish their CEOs with bonuses and golden parachutes, they slash jobs and cut all the wrong corners on customer service and safety. They break their promises to workers and retirees, leaving millions without health care and retirement plans.

But standing up for yourself by forming a union hasn’t been easy. One in five workers trying to form a union is fired. Decades of “hear no evil, see no evil” enforcement of labor laws has given management the green light to harass and intimidate anyone who tries to exercise their rights on the job. Too often federal officials fail to protect law-abiding employees, and instead act like the lookout man at a bank robbery.

Ever since I joined a union – on my very first day as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio – I have seen firsthand how collective bargaining is the best hope workers have for good jobs and good wages. Now, as president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I see that as middle class jobs disappear, so does the prospect of a safe and secure retirement. Did you know that workers in a union are nearly three times more likely to have pensions and five times more likely to have health insurance benefits? A union contract helps you long past when your working days are done.

Most of my generation is no longer in the workforce. But we worry about our younger friends and family who struggle to either find a job or hang onto the one they have. If things stay as they are, will they ever be able to retire?

In times this tough, we must all stand together. All of us must educate our neighbors – and particularly our lawmakers – about how our right to collectively bargain is broken. Only through restoring fairness to our labor laws can we restore our nation’s middle class to the greatness that it once was.

Barbara J. Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February of this year. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-888-633-4435.

Religious Organizations and Faith Groups Working Hard for the Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act

Post by Stewart Acuff
March 10, 2009

Led by Interfaith Worker Justice, religious organizations and faith groups have been working hard for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

A dozen faith groups and 50 faith leaders came together March 9 at the Methodist House on Capitol Hill to reaffirm their support for the Employee Free Choice Act and to discuss the theological foundation of that support from Judaism, Catholicism, and Evangelical Christianity.

Rev. Adam Taylor of Sojourners quoted liberally from both the Old and New Testaments including Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 22 and St. Luke to make the point that God commands the faithful to fight poverty and inequality. He went on to say that in a society and economy as unequal as ours, organizing unions and restoring collective bargaining is one of the most important ways to fight poverty and inequality.

Citing the Papal Novarum, now 150 years old, Dr. Joseph McCartin said that Catholic teaching has long held that forming unions and protecting workers rights are essential to democracy and to the work of Catholicism in the public arena. Dr. McCartin is a professor of history and a founding member of Catholic Scholars for Workers Rights. They are circulating a statement supporting the Employee Free Choice Act at Catholic colleges and universities.

Renaye Manley of Interfaith Worker Justice moderated the meeting. IWJ's founder, Kim Bobo, reminded all that "All faith traditions teach that workers should be treated with respect and dignity and paid fairly. Unions serve vital roles in ensuring workers' just treatment and pay, which is why Interfaith Worker Justice supports the Employee Free Choice Act. In this time of economic crisis, workers need a voice in the future of their companies that comes through collective bargaining. "

Rev. Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and ordained Pentecostal minister, was one of the last speakers. Although farmworers are not covered by federal labor law, he told of organizing 7000 farmworkers in North Carolina and thousands more in Ohio and across the midwest using majority signup.

Today, March 10, Rev. Jim Wallis, America's best known Evangelical preacher, author and founder of Sojourners, will testify for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act before the US Senate Labor Committee. Following that hearing, the Employee Free Choice Act will be formally introduced in the Congress by Senators Ted Kennedy and Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.
Source: Huffington Post

Big Labor VS. Big Business

IUN prof: U.S. needs Employee Free Choice Act

No word has been more overused and abused in recent memory than the word "free." After two decades of free markets and free trade, the U.S. economy is in crisis and spiraling downward.

We have learned there was nothing free about unregulated markets; capital was "free" to invest in anything, including worthless paper. We, in contrast, are stuck with the bill.

"Free" trade has stripped the United States of its manufacturing base and left us with declining wages and standards of living. In Indiana, the result has been a dramatic increase in plant closings as companies shipped their work first to Mexico and now to Southeast Asia.

That certainly was never my understanding of the word "free."

The Bill of Rights asserts some of our "freedoms" as citizens, including the right to free speech and free assembly. But these freedoms are equally misleading when it comes to workers and the workplace.

When we are at work, we do not have the freedom to say what we think without consequences, and we do not have the freedom to assemble. Not on private property, anyhow.

For the past three decades, when workers have mentioned the word "union," they have risked their livelihoods. Often, they have lost their jobs, though ostensibly for some other reason.

Now a bill is before Congress to amend the National Labor Relations Act so workers can exercise their legal rights without losing their jobs. Let me explain this Employee Free Choice Act.

Under the Labor Relations Act, workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively through an organization of their choosing. This right, or freedom, is also supported by international law.

Yet when workers have exercised this right, they often have faced severe retaliation. Even if, despite firings and threats, workers vote in the majority for a union, employers have refused to bargain, as the law requires, "in good faith." What seemed like a good idea in 1936 -- a secret-ballot election -- became an opening for anti-union employers to delay and threaten firings, wage cuts or plant closures.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a simple measure to bring labor-management relations back under the law. It gives workers a choice, once they have decided to sign a union card. They can gain recognition directly with a majority of signed cards, or they can call for a secret ballot election.

From the business-side hoopla on this question, you wouldn't know that workers now would be able to decide whether to accept recognition directly or have a secret-ballot election. According to business spokespeople, workers would be forced to give up their secret-ballot vote. When did corporate CEOs begin worrying so much about workers' rights? That alone should be a clue that we need to look into the Act itself.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, if workers choose a union, the company must bargain a contract, something that rarely happens today. With money, lawyers and time on their side, employers have robbed workers of the choice to be represented by a union by refusing to agree to anything.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, if the union and the company cannot agree, then a third party will make the decision on the contract, based on the union's last offer and the company's last offer. This is called interest arbitration, or baseball arbitration. It's nothing new to labor-management relations. With interest arbitration as a final step, both parties are encouraged to make their best possible settlement offers.

Given that less than 10 percent of the private sector workforce is unionized, companies have had too much "freedom" to do as they please, unregulated by government and not accountable to their own workforce. We have seen what unregulated and unaccountable corporations do.

If we are to create jobs, rebuild our manufacturing base and offer a future to the next generation, we need to give workers a chance and a choice. Our congressional representatives need to support the Employee Free Choice Act and stop making excuses for those who destroyed our economy.

Ruth Needleman is a professor of labor studies at Indiana University Northwest.
This Article appeared in the Gary Post Tribune

Second Bill of Rights

The Second Bill of Rights was a proposal made by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944 to suggest that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second bill of rights. Roosevelt did not argue for any change to the United States Constitution; he argued that the second bill of rights was to be implemented politically, not by federal judges. Roosevelt's stated justification was that the "political rights" guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." Roosevelt's remedy was to create an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:

• A job with a living wage
• Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
• Homeownership
• Medical care
• Education
• Recreation

Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security and that America's place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The Economic Bill of Rights”
Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

Source: Wikipedia & World Policy Institute

Employee Free Choice, the fabric of America

Young Hoosiers Conservation Corps

Do you know a young person age 16-24 who is looking for a job. You may be able to help them with this program. It pays $8.50 per hour.
There are eligibility requirements, of course, but it's worth looking in to.
On the website is a way to apply and there are several questions answered.
Click here if your interested in knowing more about the program.

Sounds like a great deal to me for a young person looking for work.

Congressman Joe Donnelly Supports Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)

"As you know, I believe that it is the right of every worker to organize and bargain collectively for fair pay, benefits, and appropriate working conditions if they so choose. Currently, when non-union employees want to organize and join a union, they can petition their employer simply by collecting signed authorization cards. However, the employer has the option to force an election governed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers who choose not to pursue the NLRB election process to certify a union as their collective bargaining representative by collecting signed authorization cards from a majority of the eligible workforce. In addition, the bill provides terms for mediation and arbitration during the negotiation of an initial contract and establishes stronger workplace enforcement of our labor laws.

I understand that good labor policy requires a careful balance between the financial challenges facing employers and the necessity of maintaining a strong workforce. I signed onto The Employee Free Choice Act because I believe it is a positive step in the direction of a more balanced economy, and I look forward to working with employers-both large and small-to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to stay competitive in today's global economy."
Joe Donnelly