Issues

June 2006

Calling all working women — Make sure your voice is heard

Do you feel that your needs, as a working woman, are being met? Have you wished for an opportunity to share your opinion on issues affecting you as a working woman? Have you been looking for a venue to express your concerns to elected officials? If you answered yes to any of these questions-this is the opportunity for you!

Take the 2006 Ask a Working Woman Survey! This Labor Day, tens of thousands of responses will be delivered to members of Congress, state, and local officials around the country. Every member of Congress is up for reelection this year. Let's make sure that the candidates hear what matters to working women!

Please spread the word by urging all the working women you know — your friends, sisters, mothers and co-workers — to fill out the survey.

TAKE ACTION: Complete the 2006 Ask a Working Woman Survey today!

Working Americans speak out on health care reform

Our health care system is broken. Today, more working women and their families are joining the ranks of the uninsured. These women are often forced to seek care at an emergency room, where the sick cannot be turned away — thereby driving up the costs of premiums for everyone.

Even for women with health insurance, the rising costs of premiums and out-of-pocket expenses make obtaining critical treatments and prescription medicines nearly unaffordable. To make matters worse, only 55 percent of individuals who seek treatment for a health condition receive care that meets the highest quality standards.

Earlier this month, The Citizens Health Care Working Group, a commission created by Congress in 2003, released their first draft of recommendations concerning the future of health care in America. The commission was created in order to involve "everyday Americans" in the process of health care reform.

The commission's major recommendation called for universal health care by 2012. The group wrote:

"Americans should have a health care system where everyone participates, regardless of their financial resources or health status, with benefits that are sufficiently comprehensive to provide access to appropriate high quality care without endangering individual or family financial security."

There is now a public comment period on the interim recommendations until August 31st. This fall, the commission will write its final recommendations, President Bush will issue his response and a report, and then Congress will hold 5 public hearings. We will need to keep the pressure on Congress to take action. It's critical that all working women speak out during the public comment period from now until the deadline August 31st.

Take Action! Sign the AFSCME health care petition to tell President Bush and the Citizens' Health Care Working Group that we need health care reform that will contain costs, emphasize quality care and make sure that all working women have access to the coverage and care they need. Please also go directly to the Working Group website and give specific comments on the 6 recommendations using the official comment form. The Working Group needs specific comments as well to justify the recommendations in the final report, or to make any changes. (Don't forget to tell them "I am an AFSCME member" in the Additional Comments section!)

Sign the AFSCME Health Care Petition now.

Give a specific comment.

Retirement security — A forgotten history or a lasting legacy?

Legacies come in many forms and serve as a link between the past, present and future. Retirement security is its own kind of legacy. Retired women and mothers need to talk to their children about their retirement security. A new report by The American Association of University Women (AAUW), "Mom's Retirement Security," found that 40 percent of adults knew little or nothing about the financial situation of their mothers. Two thirds of people surveyed believed Social Security was not their mothers' largest source of income.

Social Security is, in fact, the largest source of retirement income for the majority of women. For 40 percent of elderly women Social Security is 90 percent or more of their income. Because women are more likely to take time out of the workforce to care for children and the elderly, as well as face gender discrimination in the labor market, women have fewer opportunities to save for retirement — making Social Security critical to their economic security. Conversations between mothers and their children can help today's younger women better understand the important role Social Security will play in their retirement and help them prepare for the challenges women face in building retirement security.

An elderly woman's income is only a little more than half that of an elderly man. This gender gap in retirement income is predicted to continue through the year 2020 and beyond, partially because more women are expected to enter retirement divorced or having never married. The Administration's push to privatize Social Security is on the radar again for next year. We encourage you to talk to your mothers and daughters about this critical source of retirement security before it becomes a piece of our families' forgotten histories.

Read AAUW's report.

Unions and nurses — a successful partnership

As public service workers, nurses are needed to help society function. Despite the need for these health care workers, there is currently a shortage of nurses in the U.S. A study conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) found that the most direct method of solving the problem of hospital nurse shortage is to increase nurses' pay. The study focused on the principles of supply and demand, suggesting that hospitals are not offering high enough salaries to fill vacant nursing positions.

The study also highlighted unionization as a successful strategy for raising the wages that nurses receive. On the state level, hospital nurses who are union members experience a significant wage boost when compared to non-union members. For example, Hawaii, the state with the highest union density, also ranks as the state with the highest average median hourly wage for nurses ($28.35/hr and $58,968 annually). On the opposite end of this spectrum is Tennessee, which ranks among the lowest in union density as well as hospital nurses' median hourly wages ($20.21/hr and $42,037 annually).

The benefits of unionization are more notable when making comparisons within individual cities because employment markets are very unique to the demand in specific locations. IWPR's research finds that unions yield an average 28 percent boost in nurses' wages. United Nurses of America, an AFSCME affiliate, represents 60,000 registered and licensed practical nurses nationwide. Through UNA, nurses in every council, local, and affiliate can increase their knowledge and be involved in the decisions that affect the profession of nursing. AFSCME is the voice for 360,000 health care employees.

Read IWPR's report.

Victory for working women

Verizon Communications Inc. will have to pay nearly $49 million dollars to 13,000 current and former female employees as part of a class action lawsuit alleging pregnancy discrimination. The settlement is the second-largest pregnancy discrimination settlement in a case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the largest involving pregnancy-related service credit adjustments.

The Court found that Verizon violated federal law by denying women service credits for leaves of absence taken between July 1965 and April 1979 and pension credits for child-care leaves of absence.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments, from discriminating against women because of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.

Union women have greater means to fight pregnancy discrimination. When women join unions, they help to ensure fair treatment in the workplace for both women and men. Through collective bargaining and contracts, union women can fight wage discrimination and receive the equal treatment they deserve.

Know your rights! Download a copy of the AFSCME Women's Rights Fact Sheet: "Your Rights during Pregnancy and Childbirth."

Homegrown labor activist

Former AFSCME Women's Rights Department intern, Harream Purdie, is setting his sights on making a difference for working people.

Harream joined the department as an AFSCME/UNCF Union Scholar in the summer of 2005 before his senior year at Morehouse College in Georgia. Now an honors graduate, he's heading to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to pursue a Master's degree in Labor Studies and continue fighting for working people's rights.

Attendees at the Eastern Women's Conference will remember Harream as the face of the Social Security Action booth, where he passionately spoke about the affects of Social Security privatization on women.

The Women's Rights Department thanks Harream for his hard work and dedication to improving the lives of working families and wishes him success in all his future endeavors — congratulations!

WomENews is produced by the Women's Rights Department and written by Francinia McKeithan and Amy Vance.


 

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Mary Goulding
Council 40, Wisconsin

Mary Goulding

"AFSCME women are a force. We push hard for pay equity, economic security, funding for child care and on-the-job training. With our union, there is no stopping us!"