Silver Spring, MD – More than 125 union leaders and activists from 25 states gathered at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD last weekend to strategize about next steps at the state and national level to win comprehensive health care reform. The group is promoting a “single-payer” reform plan that would work like the Medicare program, except improved and expanded to cover everyone.

The national meeting was the second convened by the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Healthcare which is spearheaded by trade union organizations. The group supports the national single-payer bill, HR 676 that has been endorsed by 39 state AFL-CIO federations, 135 Central Labor Councils, 22 international/national unions and more than 500 local unions. The bill has 87 co-sponsors in Congress.

Conference participants celebrated a significant achievement since their first meeting in St. Louis last year. After receiving a record number of resolutions from the grassroots, the AFL-CIO unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Medicare for All approach to health care reform at its national convention in September 2009. AFL-CIO resolution 34 stated, “In building on Medicare to move toward a universal program, we can find a practical, achievable and affordable solution to our country’s health care crisis.” The resolution committed the AFL-CIO to, “mobilize our members to build support for bold, meaningful and comprehensive reform and work to pass legislation that assures everyone comprehensive coverage.”

“All of us involved in the fight for health care reform know that single payer is the only real solution,” said Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America. “Everything else is just a step along the way. Our union is committed to single payer, to bringing our health care system into the 21 century.”

Other speakers at the conference included national union officers, AFL-CIO Executive Council members, AFL-CIO state federation and central labor council presidents along with many other major union leaders. A list of conference speakers is at the end of this news release.

Over the course of the weekend meeting, delegates heard presentations on “Lessons from the Past and Prospects for the Future,” “Strategies to Move Forward,” Impact of the Health Care Crisis on Collective Bargaining” and how to deepen labor’s support for Medicare for All at all levels of our organizations.

Congressman John Conyers, the lead sponsor of HR 676, participated in the entire conference. He gave a keynote presentation on “Current Legislative Issues and the Future of HR 676,” and he and his staff frequently lent their expertise and political savvy to the discussions.

Delegates were also treated to a rousing speech from Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards. “Just because a health care reform bill is passed and signed into law this year doesn’t mean that our fight is over,” she said. “We’ve got to redouble our efforts for legislation that will provide real health care for all.”

Participants vigorously discussed and debated strategies to promote single payer reform within the labor movement while developing action plans for securing more support within their unions and communities.

“Achieving Medicare for All is critical to the future of the labor movement,” said David Newby President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Our movement is growing because the proposed national reforms fall far short of the health security that all workers need. Our economic future depends on making the right policy choices on health care — and that’s single payer.”

“Our meeting highlighted the serious grassroots organizing that thousands of workers and their unions are doing to change the terms of the debate on health care reform,” said Martha Kuhl, Secretary-Treasurer of the National Nurses United and a working nurse. “Still, many unions need to expand member-to-member education so that workers understand that an improved and expanded Medicare for All is the best solution to the health care crisis. We emphasized the need for union activists to redouble their efforts to push some labor leaders to actually lead on this issue.”

“In virtually every contract negotiation, employers are seeking to shift the cost of health care to workers. It has resulted in highly contentious bargaining and many strikes. For the vast majority of workers without a union, the situation is even more desperate. A publicly financed, national health care plan similar to our Medicare system that could efficiently cover all Americans is the only solution that will control costs, increase access and improve the quality of care,” said Jeff Crosby, president of the North Shore Labor Council in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Speakers at the conference included:

• Stewart Acuff, Special Assistant to the President, Utility Workers Union of America
• Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America
• Jeff Crosby, President, North Shore Labor Council
• Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO
• Peter Knowlton, New England Regional President, United Electrical Workers
• Michael Lighty, Director of Public Policy, National Nurses United
• David Newby, President, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO
• Clyde Rivers, Past President, California School Employees Association
• Robert Score, Recording Secretary, Local One, Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE
• Kay Tillow, All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care
• Jos Williams, President, Washington DC Central Labor Council
• Nancy Wohlforth, member, AFL-CIO Executive Council

Conference speakers and other participants are available for interviews about the single payer approach to health care reform and the labor movement’s campaign to win it.

Download a PDF of this press release

Labor for Single Payer Healthcare

AVideo clip of CWA President Larry Cohen speaking at the conference

Labor Campaign for Single-Payer  Healthcare

Healthcare Is A Right — Not A Privilege

WHEREAS in the aftermath of the Massachusetts special senatorial election, AFL-CIO President  Richard Trumka issued a statement declaring, “It’s time to organize and mobilize as never before  to make every elected or aspiring leader PROVE he or she will create the jobs we need in an  economy we need with the healthcare we need. I know we are the people who can mobilize a  massive army to force elected leaders to deliver;” and

WHEREAS despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has  continued unabated, with growing unemployment and underemployment, rising home  foreclosures and evictions, and the underfunding of public education and vitally needed social  services; and

WHEREAS the government has bestowed billions of bailout dollars on the financial institutions  whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis and who are rewarding those  responsible with obscene gigantic bonuses; and

WHEREAS the labor movement’s legislative priorities — a massive program for jobs, true  universal healthcare, and enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act — are all in great peril; and

WHEREAS while the government has no problem allocating a trillion dollars for two wars  thousands of miles away, it has not committed funds critically needed to put America back to  work, with healthcare and quality education for all; and

WHEREAS right wing, anti-labor forces, such as the Tea Bag movement, have brought hundreds  of thousands of people into the streets to advance their reactionary demands; and

WHEREAS there is a growing movement within the House of Labor to counter the right-wing  offensive against workers’ living standards with our own massive mobilization; and

WHEREAS various union bodies, including the South Bay Labor Council (CA), the Troy Area  Labor Council (NY), the San Francisco Labor Council, and the South Carolina AFL-CIO, have  adopted resolutions calling upon the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III  March on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, healthcare, housing, full funding  for public education and social services, and peace; now therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Labor Campaign for Single Payer joins with our brothers and sisters in  calling for a labor-sponsored march on Washington for jobs, peace and justice, which would have  the capability of mobilizing the kind of massive army Brother Trumka spoke of; and be it finally

RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the AFL-CIO and to Change to Win.

Adopted by the LCSP National Meeting, March 7, 2010.

Download a PDF of this resolution.

Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare

PDF Version Here

Whereas, US involvement in wars and the US military aid to other countries are making the
people of the US and the world less safe; and

Whereas, these wars and military aid are bankrupting the people of the US, who are already
suffering from staggering job losses, foreclosures and a broken healthcare system; and

Whereas, despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has
continued unabated with growing unemployment and continuing home foreclosures and
evictions; and

Whereas, this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education
and social services; and

Whereas, there is a growing opposition to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq by a
majority of the people here in the United States, not to mention the great and ever-growing
opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq; and

Whereas, these wars are costing billions of dollars each month;

Therefore Be It Resolved that the California Labor Federation calls on the AFL-CIO and
Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington, DC, in the spring of 2010
to demand jobs, housing, healthcare, full funding for public education and social services and
peace;

Be it Finally Resolved that we send this resolution for action and concurrence to the AFL-CIO
and Change to Win.

Dated: February 23, 2010

Building the March 4 Strike/Day of Action in Defense of Public Education and all Public Sector Services
Whereas, a powerful labor-student-faculty coalition to defend public education has formed statewide in the aftermath of the Sept. 24, 2009, 5,000-person-strong mass student walkout and university workers’ strike at UC Berkeley — organized around the main demands of “No Budget Cuts! No Layoffs! No Fee Hikes!”; and

Whereas, on October 24, 2009, more than 800 students, unionists and activists from more then 50 cities across the state gathered at UC Berkeley and issued a Call for a March 4, 2010, Strike/Day of Action to Save Public Education; and

Whereas, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California Faculty Association (CFA), and dozens of public education and public-sector unions have endorsed the March 4 Strike/Day of Action; and
Whereas, AFT 2121 and UESF, among others, have called for a 5 p.m. rally at Civic Center in San Francisco on March 4 to impress the demands upon the public; and

Whereas, the January 4, 2010, Executive Board meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council voted unanimously to endorse the March 4 Strike/Day of Action, and the March 22 March in Sacramento (spearheaded by the Community College students and unions); and
Whereas, the attacks on public education and all public-sector services are deepening as a result of the growing state budget deficit, with public education workers being pitted against other public-sector workers, with the threat of increased privatization of services, and with more so-called “reforms” aimed at gutting union contracts and destroying essential services; and

Whereas, the January 4, 2010, SFLC Executive Board meeting affirmed that the Council must call upon all public-sector unions to join in the fight on March 4 to defend public education and all public-sector services, and to secure essential funding by taxing the rich and the corporations, by (1) breaking with the tyranny of the 2/3 vote in the State Assembly and reinstating majority rule, and (2) restructuring Prop 13 (to separate commercial property rolls from residential property rolls, as Phil Teng has proposed); and

Whereas, securing funding for public education and the public sector demands redirecting bailout funds to the state — not to the bankers and speculators; and ultimately requires calling for an end to war funding in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council calls for a citywide mobilization of affiliated unions and community allies on March 4, 2010, in defense of public education and the public sector — with day-time actions to be carried out in the manner deemed appropriate by every union and local, and with a 5 p.m. Rally at the Civic Center; and

Therefore be it further resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council will form an ad-hoc committee, open to all delegates, in close consultation with the teacher/faculty unions and the Council’s Executive Board, with the aim of (1) preparing or distributing existing educational materials on the impact of the budget cuts on the city’s public education and public sector, (2) organizing a speakers’ bureau to make outreach presentations at the membership and/or leadership meetings of the Council’s affiliates, and to affected community groups, and (3) coordinating the actions on March 4 and building the 5 p.m. Civic Center Rally; and

Be it finally resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council asks all Bay Area Councils to take similar action on March 4, and calls upon the California Federation of Labor to promote a statewide Day of Action on March 4 in defense of public education and the public sector, so that we can expand the unity and increase the power of the movement to halt and reverse the attacks on public sector unions in California.

Respectfully submitted by

Alan Benjamin, delegate OPEIU Local 3

Allan Fisher, delegate AFT 2121

Denis Mosgofian, delegate Local 4 GCC-IBT

Ann Robertson, delegate CFA (San Francisco State University)

Whereas — despite the so-called economic recovery — the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated with growing unemployment and rising home foreclosures and evictions,

And whereas this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education and social services,

And whereas the government has bestowed billions of dollars of bailout money on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis,

And whereas there is growing opposition to the wars and occupations in

Afghanistan and Iraq by a majority of the people here in the U.S. –not to mention the great and ever-growing opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq,

And whereas these wars are costing billions of dollars each month,

Therefore be it resolved that ____________ call on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, housing, health care, full funding for public education and social services, and peace.

Read more the whole document:

CFA White Paper

National March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, Affordable Healthcare For All 

and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

Whereas, despite the so-called economic recovery, the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated with growing unemployment and rising home foreclosures and evictions, and

Whereas this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education and social services, and

Whereas the government has bestowed billions of dollars of bailout money on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis, and

Whereas there is growing opposition to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq by a majority of the people here in the United States, not to mention the great and ever-growing opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq, and

Whereas these wars are costing billions of dollars each month, therefore be it

Resolved that the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council calls on the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, housing, healthcare, full funding for public education and social services, and peace, and be it

Further Resolved that we send this resolution for concurrence and action to the Santa Clara County Building and Construction Trades Council, the California State Building and Construction Trades Council, and the California Federation of Labor.

Blacks hit hard by economy’s punch

34.5 percent of young African American men are unemployed 

Unemployment skyrockets for young African Americans 

The nation’s rising unemployment has afflicted young African Americans at greater rates than any other socioeconomic group, reaching Great Depression proportions and accelerating a reversal of hard-won economic gains of the 1990s.

By V. Dion Haynes

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

 These days, 24-year-old Delonta Spriggs spends much of his time cooped up in his mother’s one-bedroom apartment in Southwest Washington, the TV blaring soap operas hour after hour, trying to stay out of the streets and out of trouble, held captive by the economy. As a young black man, Spriggs belongs to a group that has been hit much harder than any other by unemployment. 

Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions — 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland. 

His work history, Spriggs says, has consisted of dead-end jobs. About a year ago, he lost his job moving office furniture, and he hasn’t been able to find steady work since. This summer he completed a construction apprenticeship program, he says, seeking a career so he could avoid repeating the mistake of selling drugs to support his 3-year-old daughter. So far the most the training program has yielded was a temporary flagger job that lasted a few days. 

“I think we’re labeled for not wanting to do nothing — knuckleheads or hardheads,” said Spriggs, whose first name is pronounced Dee-lon-tay. “But all of us ain’t bad.” 

Construction, manufacturing and retail experienced the most severe job losses in this down economy, losses that are disproportionately affecting men and young people who populated those sectors. That is especially playing out in the District, where unemployment has risen despite the abundance of jobs in the federal government. 

Traditionally the last hired and first fired, workers in Spriggs’s age group have taken the brunt of the difficult economy, with cost-conscious employers wiping out the very apprenticeship, internship and on-the-job-training programs that for generations gave young people a leg up in the work world or a second chance when they made mistakes. Moreover, this generation is being elbowed out of entry-level positions by older, more experienced job seekers on the unemployment rolls who willingly trade down just to put food on the table. 

The jobless rate for young black men and women is 30.5 percent. For young blacks — who experts say are more likely to grow up in impoverished racially isolated neighborhoods, attend subpar public schools and experience discrimination — race statistically appears to be a bigger factor in their unemployment than age, income or even education. Lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, and even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers. 

Young black women have an unemployment rate of 26.5 percent, while the rate for all 16-to-24-year-old women is 15.4 percent. 

Victoria Kirby, 22, has been among that number. In the summer of 2008, a D.C. publishing company where Kirby was interning offered her a job that would start upon her graduation in May 2009 from Howard University. But the company withdrew the offer in the fall of 2008 when the economy collapsed. 

Kirby said she applied for administrative jobs on Capitol Hill but was told she was overqualified. She sought a teaching position in the D.C. public schools through the Teach for America program but said she was rejected because of a flood of four times the usual number of applicants. 

Finally, she went back to school, enrolling in a master’s of public policy program at Howard. “I decided to stay in school two more years and wait out the recession,” Kirby said. 

On a tightrope 

The Obama administration is on a tightrope, balancing the desire to spend billions more dollars to create jobs without adding to the $1.4 trillion national deficit. Yet some policy experts say more attention needs to be paid to the intractable problems of underemployed workers — those who like Spriggs may lack a high school diploma, a steady work history, job-readiness skills or a squeaky-clean background.

“Increased involvement in the underground economy, criminal activity, increased poverty, homelessness and teen pregnancy are the things I worry about if we continue to see more years of high unemployment,” said Algernon Austin, a sociologist and director of the race, ethnicity and economy program at the Economic Policy Institute, which studies issues involving low- and middle-income wage earners. 

Earlier this month, District officials said they will use $3.9 million in federal stimulus funds to provide 19 weeks of on-the-job training to 500 18-to-24-year-olds. But even those who receive training often don’t get jobs. 

“I thought after I finished the [training] program, I’d be working. I only had three jobs with the union and only one of them was longer than a week,” Spriggs, a tall slender man wearing a black Nationals cap, said one afternoon while sitting at the table in the living room/dining room in his mother’s apartment. “It has you wanting to go out and find other ways to make money. . . . [Lack of jobs is why] people go out hustling and doing what they can to get by.” 

“Give me a chance to show that I can work. Just give me a chance,” added Spriggs, who is on probation for drug possession. “I don’t want to think negative. I know the economy is slow. You got to crawl before you walk. I got to be patient. My biggest problem [which prompted the effort to sell drugs] is not being patient.” 

The economy’s seismic shift has been an equal-opportunity offender, hurting various racial and ethnic groups, economic classes, ages, and white- and blue-collar job categories. Nevertheless, 16-to-24-year-olds face heavier losses, with a 19.1 percent unemployment rate, about nine points higher than the national average for the general population. 

Their rate of employment in October was 44.9 percent, the lowest level in 61 years of record keeping, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment for men in their 20s and early 30s is at its lowest level since the Great Depression, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies. 

Troubling consequences 

Unemployment among young people is particularly troubling, economists say, because the consequences can be long-lasting. This might be the first generation that does not keep up with its parents’ standard of living. Jobless teens are more likely to be jobless twenty-somethings. Once forced onto the sidelines, they likely will not catch up financially for many years. That is the case even for young people of all ethnic groups who graduate from college. 

Lisa B. Kahn, an economics professor at Yale University who studied graduates during recessions in the 1980s, determined that the young workers hired during a down economy generally start off with lower wages than they otherwise would have and don’t recover for at least a decade. 

“In your first job, you’re accumulating skills on how to do the job, learning by doing and getting training. If you graduate in a recession, you’re in a [lesser] job, wasting your time,” she said. “Once you switch into the job you should be in, you don’t have the skills for that job.”

 Some studies examining how employers review black and white job applicants suggest that discrimination may be at play. 

“Black men were less likely to receive a call back or job offer than equally qualified white men,” said Devah Pager, a sociology professor at Princeton University, referring to her studies a few years ago of white and black male job applicants in their 20s in Milwaukee and New York. “Black men with a clean record fare no better than white men just released from prison.”

Published: November 17, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/17/business/AP-US-Foreclosures-Minorities.html

Filed at 12:52 a.m. ET 

NEW YORK (AP) — Black and Latinos are at a disproportionate risk in the ongoing foreclosure crisis because they are more likely than whites to have higher-cost mortgage loans and face higher unemployment rates, a report says.

The report from the William C. Velasquez Institute called on the federal government to take steps, including reforming bankruptcy laws and expanding eligibility for mortgage modification efforts, to help combat the crisis.

”If nothing is done then the foreclosures will continue disproportionately hitting blacks and Latinos,” said UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa the author of the study.

Hinojosa was in New York City on Monday to talk about the report that was officially released last week. He said continued foreclosures could wipe out billions of dollars in home equity wealth amassed in those communities, and even those black and Latino homeowners who kept their homes would be affected by lower property values in foreclosure-riddled neighborhoods. ”Not only are you wiping out this generation of black and Latino families,” he said, ”but those neighborhoods go into serious decline.’

Jose Calderon, vice president of programs and policy for the Hispanic Federation, which took part in the Monday event, said the foreclosures carried a far-reaching impact.

”The social cohesion of our communities is being destroyed,” he said.

Unemployment is now the primary force behind foreclosures. Borrowers are struggling with no income and lenders are having a harder time reworking troubled loans. Blacks and Latinos suffer in comparison to whites both in unemployment rates and having loans with higher interest rates.

The nationwide unemployment rate is 10.2 percent. For blacks, it’s 15.7 percent and for Latinos, 13.1 percent.

As far as high-cost mortgages are concerned, the report said that in regions across the country, blacks and Latinos were anywhere from two to nine times as likely as whites to have those kinds of loans.

The William C. Velasquez Institute is a nonpartisan think tank that studies Hispanic issues. ]]> http://wercampaign.org/2009/12/07/report-foreclosure-crisis-hits-blacks-latinos/feed/ 0 http://wercampaign.org/2009/11/24/michael-moore-blasts-healthcare-bill/ http://wercampaign.org/2009/11/24/michael-moore-blasts-healthcare-bill/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:45:48 +0000 WERCampaign http://wercampaign.org/?p=463 Michael Moore Blasts House Healthcare Bill