Winning More Change
REBUILDING THE MIDDLE CLASS – President McEntee speaking at a Washington, DC, rally in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. AFSCME is leading the campaign to pass this crucial legislation to help workers join unions and bargain for better wages and benefits.
Photo Credit: Jay Mallin
AFSCME’s “Make America Happen” Campaign: Our Agenda to Promote Public Services and Rebuild America’s Middle Class
By Gonzalo Baeza
Barack Obama begins his presidency with a mandate to change America into a country that lives up to its ideals of shared prosperity and opportunity for all. As working families celebrate this victory, we also face monumental challenges as a nation.
The United States is experiencing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Home foreclosures jumped from nearly 600,000 in 2007 to almost 1 million in 2008. The U.S. auto industry faces bankruptcy and a shutdown that could eliminate up to 3.3 million U.S. jobs in 2009 adding to the 2.6 million jobs lost last year — the largest loss since 1945. Our country is bogged down in two wars that have cost lives, damaged our reputation and drained our treasury of resources needed at home. Our crippled health care system is wreaking financial havoc on families, overwhelming government budgets and making businesses uncompetitive. And states are running out of money to provide vital services in times of need.
It is time to put America back to work and rebuild the middle class. The year 2009 presents an extraordinary opportunity for AFSCME members. Working families have regained the White House with Pres. Barack Obama and we have pro-worker majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate. Public support for our issues keeps growing and as a result we have an historic chance to effect a major shift in American politics.
AFSCME’S Three-Part Program
To seize this opportunity, AFSCME has launched its “Make America Happen” campaign to win three federal legislative priorities:
Jumpstart the Economy: America needs a comprehensive economic recovery package that provides aid to ailing state and local governments, and maintains vital public services and the jobs of the dedicated employees who provide them.
Make Health Care Affordable: Our broken health care system must be reformed and the skyrocketing costs of coverage put under control. Guaranteed quality, affordable health care everyone can count on is key to economic recovery.
Rebuild the Middle Class: Workers should be free to join unions and bargain for better wages and benefits. Unions are a ticket to the middle class and they raise the standard of living for all. We can accomplish this by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
AFSCME is already leading the fight for these initiatives. They are our top goals for the first 100 days of the new Congress.
Federal Aid to Cash-Strapped State and Local Governments
The challenges facing our country can only be met by an activist government that is innovative and bold. We must remake government into a vibrant force that solves problems, stands with American families and empowers people and communities to improve their lives.
A key element of a new economic recovery initiative must be federal aid to financially hard-pressed state and local governments. This will allow them to immediately respond to the increasing demand for public services during the recession.
As President Obama said during a recent speech at George Mason University near Washington, DC: “At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy — where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.”
There is a growing consensus that we need to fund infrastructure projects and essential services — the exact same things AFSCME is fighting for. This is why the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed an $819 billion stimulus package to jolt the economy back to life, including increases in federal aid to states for Medicaid costs, local school districts and public colleges, and infra-structure spending. At press time, the bill was being debated in the Senate. The stimulus plan is a centerpiece of President Obama’s agenda.
“Congress needs to move to jumpstart the economy right now,” AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee said recently while discussing how the nation’s unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December. “This must include major help for states and localities that are being forced to cut many of the vital public services that the American people rely on in times of economic crisis.”
According to a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least 45 states are currently facing serious fiscal crises and that number is expected to grow. This is on top of the $48 billion in shortfalls that states experienced last year. State tax revenues for the three months ending in September were the worst since the 2002 recession, dropping 2.7 percent after inflation. State budget crises are unfolding as states, counties and municipalities face greater demands on their budgets.
In 2003, Congress enacted a $20 billion fiscal relief package for states consisting of two elements: a temporary increase in the federal share of the Medicaid program and flexible grants to the states. This is a fraction of what’s needed now. Given the severity of the current economic crisis, a much larger financial aid package will be necessary to balance budgets and meet their needs.
Most of the new aid should consist of a temporary enhancement of the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage, which sets the amount of federal matching funds for Medicaid expenditures. This measure would immediately help states avert budget cuts and continue health care services. State aid should also include a variety of elements, from expanded Unemployment Insurance, to housing crisis emergency funds, job training and infra-structure improvements.
Guarantee Affordable, Quality Health Care
Health care reform is a vital part of rebuilding the economy and expanding America’s middle class. We must make health care affordable for those who have it, and guarantee coverage for those who have none. Barack Obama put it best when he said: “The question isn’t how we can afford to focus on health care — but how we can afford not to. Because in order to fix our economic crisis, and rebuild our middle class, we need to fix our health care system, too.”
Affordable, quality health care for all is key to reducing the economic impact of the present crisis. As a recent study by the New America Foundation demonstrates, health care reform and jumpstarting the economy go hand in hand. According to its findings, our economy lost as much as $207 billion in 2007 due to poor health and shortened life spans caused by lack of insurance.
We want a plan that guarantees affordable quality coverage for everyone. This system must give working families a real choice, allowing them to keep their current health plan, pick a new private plan, or join a public health insurance plan. By letting private and public coverage options compete, we can hold the insurance industry to higher standards of quality and cost efficiency.
AFSCME will lead the fight for comprehensive health care reform in 2009. Our union will coordinate its health care mobilization efforts with the AFL-CIO’s health care campaign, chaired by President McEntee. AFSCME is also a founding member of Health Care for America Now! (HCAN), a national grassroots campaign organizing millions of Americans to win quality, affordable health care for all.
The Employee Free Choice Act
As working families struggle to make ends meet amid a devastated economy, our country risks losing the American middle class. Union membership is key to raising the standard of living for all, including non-union workers.
Unionized workers earn 30 percent more than non-union employees. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), union members are more likely to have health care and pension benefits. Nearly 80 percent of union workers in the private sector have jobs with employer-provided health insurance, compared to only 49 percent of their non-union counterparts. Likewise, 81 percent of union employees participate in pension plans versus 47 percent of non-union workers.
Under today’s broken labor laws, it is hard for workers to join unions. Polls show that nearly 60 million people who don’t have unions say they would join one if they could. This is why even in a hostile, anti-union climate, union membership has been growing. According to the BLS, union membership rose by 428,000 members last year, the largest increase in a quarter-century.
Still much more needs to be done. Penalties for companies like Wal-Mart that deny a worker’s right to organize are so slight that corporations simply consider them the cost of doing business. According to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, one out of five active union supporters is illegally fired for union activity during an organizing campaign.
The Employee Free Choice Act requires employers to recognize unions when a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation. Currently, there are two ways workers can join: ballot elections and by signing cards, known as majority sign-up. Under today’s company-dominated system, the employer decides which method is used, instead of letting the workers choose.
The Employee Free Choice Act puts that decision where it belongs: in the hands of workers. They can choose between a ballot election or card-signing.
Unsurprisingly, this potential shift in power does not sit well with corporations. According to Rick Berman, founder of the corporate-funded antiunion interest group, the Center for Union Facts, if this crucial bill passes, “it would be a wholesale change in the political power structure in this country.”
Indeed. This new legislation would restore fairness in the workplace and grant workers the chance to join a union without employer interference and coercion. It would also provide for mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes, and establish stronger penalties for violations of employees’ rights when they seek to form a union. Prestigious national companies with good profit margins and solid labor relations like AT&T and Kaiser Permanente have used majority sign-up for years and the results speak for themselves.
Both Obama and Vice Pres. Joe Biden are original cosponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. AFSCME will work with them and the pro-worker majority in Congress to pass the bill and restore the promise of the American Dream for all workers.
A VOICE IN THE WORKPLACE – Pres. Barack Obama, then a U.S. Senator from Illinois, during an AFSCME organizing rally.
Photo Credit: Linc Cohen
ON THE ‘ROAD TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY’ – Drawing attention to economic conditions that have devastated communities throughout the state, Ohio AFL-CIO Pres. Joe Rugola (center) walked 313 miles last fall throughout Ohio over more than a week. He stopped at union halls and closed plants along the way. Joining him near Findlay, Ohio, were AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee (right) and Lee Saunders, executive assistant to the president.
Photo Credit: Howard Moyer
IN THE STREETS – Last month, thousands of workers — including members of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000, DC 37, District Council 1707 and Council 35 — converged on the state Capitol in Albany, New York. They were protesting Gov. David Paterson’s misplaced state budget priorities, which target the middle class.
Photo Credit: Mark Kotzin
