Union Plus Helps IAM Welder Cut Health Care Costs

Thu. August 25, 2011

As a welder and 10-year member of IAM Local 1297, Melvin Reese knows a thing or two about working when the “heat is on,” but when illness kept him off the job, his stress level hit a boiling point. The costs of his wife’s monthly prescriptions were also adding up. Fortunately, Reese discovered the Union Plus Disability Grant and the Union Plus Prescription Discount Card to lessen the financial stress of illness.

“I have carried a Union Plus Credit Card for years and I’m glad I did because it made me eligible to receive a Union Plus Disability Grant. It was a tremendous help to my family,” says Reese, of Cleveland Heights, OH, who received $1,250 in assistance. “I’ve since learned of other Union Plus discounts and benefits available to union members. In addition to enjoying a 15% discount on my AT&T cell phone service, I recently signed up for the Union Plus Prescription Card. The discount card is definitely saving my family money.”

“Union Plus benefits can provide members with help when they need it most, especially during these difficult times,” said IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart. “I congratulate Brother Reese and his family, and encourage all IAM members to take advantage of the programs available through Union Plus.”

Union members who have had the Union Plus Credit Card for at least one year, have been out of work for at least 90 days, and who experienced a loss of 25 percent or more of household income due to the illness or disability within the past six months may be eligible for disability assistance.

The Union Plus Prescription Discount Card, which comes at no cost, provides automatic savings of an average of 15 percent off brand name drugs and 40 percent off generic drugs. The card is best for union members who do not have insurance that covers prescriptions or who have household family members with insufficient prescription coverage. Spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, aunts and uncles of union members are all eligible for the no-cost prescription discount card.

To learn about the Union Plus benefits available to IAM members including discounts on AT&T wireless service, college test preparation, car rentals, legal services, health savings and much more, visit www.UnionPlus.org.

Romney Embraces Bosses, ‘Right to Work’ for Less

by Jeff Hauser, Aug 25, 2011

Californian* Mitt Romney gave his anti-worker corporate backers a big boost when he spent yesterday in New Hampshire getting involved in the state fight surrounding “right to work” for less.

Instead of talking about what working people want to hear—how every politician is going to create jobs—he’s spending his time with partisan political attacks that have no basis in economic reality. If he was focused on the economics, he’d realize that “right to work” for less lowers wages for everyone. In fact, the average worker in a “right to work” state makes about $5,333 a year less than workers in other states ($35,500 compared with $30,167).

Romney ought to beware of associating himself with the more radical elements of the New Hampshire right wing, which has been losing race after race after it began its war on the middle class. Democratic state candidate Jennifer Daler bested anti-working family candidate Peter Kucmas by 16 percentage points in a state House race May 17 in a district where Republicans have held a 7 percent edge over Democrats since 2004. Daler even swept all five towns in Republican Speaker William O’Brien’s home district.

Bob Perry, a 30-year retired union member and Democrat, defeated Honey Puterbaugh by 16 percentage points in the Aug. 9 special election to regain a Republican-held state seat.

Two pro-labor candidates are running in the upcoming election in Rockingham after labor-endorsed firefighter Kevin Janvrin upset a tea party candidate in the Republican primary on July 5. Janvrin will face Democrat Ryan Mahoney Sept. 6.

If Romney can’t figure it out from New Hampshire, maybe he should check out Ohio where Gov. John Kasich’s attack on collective bargaining rights for public employees has resulted in a groundswell of support for public employees—and against Kasich.

* California is where he is quadrupling the size of his current multimillion-dollar mansion, but at different times Romney claims Michigan, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as his “home states,” showing no more certainty of his place of origin than whether he continues to support his old health care plan. Maybe we should ask for his birth certificate.

Perry, Kasich Deny Jobless Workers $731 Million in Jobless Help

by Mike Hall, Aug 24, 2011

Just in case anybody wondered if Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) give a whit about jobless workers in their states, we’ve got an answer. They don’t.

Both let a Monday deadline pass to apply for hundreds of millions of dollars—$555 million in Texas and $176 million in Ohio—in federal funds for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The money was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.

To receive the money, both states would have had to slightly expand eligibility requirements for receiving UI, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. But both Perry and Kasich turned their backs on the money and the jobless workers.

Each state had four options in providing more UI help for their unemployed residents and only had to pick two of the ways. The states could have made workers in job training programs or those seeking part-time employment eligible. They could have provided larger benefits for unemployed workers with children or to people who have to leave their jobs because of domestic violence, a spouse’s job transfer or illness of an immediate relative.

At least 33 other states found no problems with the requirements, but Texas and Ohio claimed the modest increase in costs for expanded eligibility was too much to bear.

In Texas, Ed Sills, Texas AFL-CIO communications director, says some high-ranking Perry administration officials believed the state could have easily afforded the small extra costs.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst calculated that the higher cost of modestly improved eligibility, which was a condition of receiving the stimulus funds, would have been offset by the $555 million for more than a decade.

Instead, unemployed workers in Texas continue to suffer with a rock-bottom eligibility rate for UI benefits and employers continue to pay much higher taxes.

Employers as well as workers benefit from the federal unemployment funds, through lower unemployment taxes or delays in scheduled hikes.

But Perry and Kasich made their choice and eventually so will voters.

Top Lawmakers Say Proposed NLRB Election Rule Ensures ‘Greater Fairness’

by Mike Hall, Aug 24, 2011

Workers deserve a “fair, clear system for protecting their rights and making themselves heard in union elections,” four top Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) strongly supporting the board’s proposed changes in the way elections to form unions are conducted.

Noting that the current election procedures are “outdated and contain unnecessary delays…that run anywhere from three and a half years to 13 years,” the lawmakers say:

The longer an election is delayed, the more likely it is that workers will face harassment and unlawful retaliation for exercising their rights….In today’s workplace one in five workers who exercise the right to organize is illegally fired. In that environment, workers stop trying to organize, leading to a country where tens of millions of Americans who want a union do not have one.

The four are Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee; Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Education and Workforce Committee; and Rep. Robert Andrews D-N.J.), ranking member of the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee.

They wrote that along with ensuring workers’ rights, the proposed changes also “maintain employers’ rights while providing greater certainty and lower litigation costs for employers, workers and the government.”

The current systems delays and red tape encourage labor unrest and erode the rights of employers and employees alike. The new rules will help heal that broken system, bringing greater peace and greater fairness to the American workplace.

Click here for the full letter

Nurses Demand a ‘Main Street Contract for the American People’

by James Parks, Aug 23, 2011

Nurses across the country, members of National Nurses United (NNU), are calling on elected leaders to enact a “Main Street Contract for the American People.”

NNU Co-President Jean Ross said the contract is a care plan to cure America. The plan is designed to stop economic decline and protect American families. It calls for jobs at living wages, guaranteed health care for all and equal access to quality education, schools, good housing, protection from hunger, a secure retirement for everyone, a clean and safe environment and a fair and just tax system in which Wall Street and those with the most wealth pay their fair share.

You can join with the nurses to tell the leaders we elected to pay attention to working people and not cater to the Wall Street fat cats. Sign and tweet a petition here demanding that Congress pass the Wall Street Transaction Tax, which will make Wall Street pay for the devastation it has caused on Main Street.

The nurses also are planning a Sept. 1 National Nurses Day of Action to Tax Wall Street with dozens of rallies and events across the country. To learn more and find the events in your area, visit www.mainstreetcontract.org.

NNU’s DeMoro Named One of Nation’s Most Influential People in Health Care

by Mike Hall, Aug 23, 2011

NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. This is the 10th year in a row DeMoro was honored by the health care industry news weekly Modern Healthcare.

She is one of only 10 people in the United States—and the only one representing people who actually provide direct health care to patients—to be named to the list for each of the 10 years it has been compiled. This year, DeMoro was placed at number 31 on the list, which is dominated by government officials and corporate executives.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who wants to end Medicare and replace it with underfunded vouchers for private insurance, topped the list. In an interview with Modern Healthcare (click here and scroll down), DeMoro said Ryan and many others on the list believe that corporate medical care is the best approach to care delivery, despite the ongoing health care crisis as a result of skyrocketing costs, quality problems and 50 million uninsured Americans.

The market isn’t magic and it doesn’t trickle down. There’s a role for government—I just wish the people in government would play it. The Paul Ryans of the world actually don’t want a society. They want individuals and corporations to make ungodly amounts of money. There is no society—only individuals and what individuals can do on their own.

Click here to read more from NNU.

MLK Memorial Unveiled on National Mall

Tue. August 23, 2011

Thousands will converge on Washington, DC, this weekend for a first look at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. The 30-foot-tall granite statue is now open to the public.

A formal dedication ceremony will be held Sunday, August 28th, the 48th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered during his famous 1963 March on Washington.

“The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom will be forever known as the day that ensured the success of the civil rights movement and launched the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the highest pantheon of American champions,” said a recent Washington Post article profiling the march’s chief organizer and key King adviser, Bayard Rustin. “On the 48th anniversary of the march, King will be anointed into that ultra-selective fraternity of national leaders memorialized on the Mall.”

“The IAM salutes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his legacy and his dream,” said Diane Babineaux, IAM Chief of Staff to the International President. “We welcome his presence on the National Mall as his memorial befittingly sits between two of our country’s most historic freedom fighters. To his left is the Lincoln Memorial, a tribute to the president who freed the slaves and where Dr. King gave his famous speech. And to his right sits the Jefferson Memorial, a tribute to our former-president and author of the Declaration of Independence.

“As the IAM prepares for the upcoming IAM Human Rights Conference to brainstorm ways to tackle the inequalities still plaguing American workers, we pledge to continue Dr. King’s legacy,” said Babineaux. “May his dream live on inside each and every one of us.”

For more information on the new MLK National Memorial, click here

Members Mark 10th Anniversary of Workers’ Memorial

Tue. August 23, 2011

IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger, right, and IAM Safety and Health Department Director Mike Flynn, left, and students at the IAM Safety and Health Conference mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of the IAM Workers’ Memorial to honor IAM members who lost their lives on the job or from work-related injuries.

Participants at the annual Safety and Health Conference at the IAM William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center marked a special occasion when their class coincided with the tenth anniversary of the opening of the IAM Workers’ Memorial on the grounds of the Winpisinger Center. IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger joined the class to commemorate the anniversary with a special wreath dedicated to the memory of all IAM members who lost their lives on the job or from work-related injuries.

Each year, fallen members are memorialized with bricks with their names inscribed on them. The bricks are placed around the base of the memorial. “It will be a great day when this monument ceases to grow and no more of our members and their families must suffer such great losses,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger.

Buffenbarger also acknowledged the work of the IAM Safety and Health Department and the many IAM members who help make workplaces safe. “We are privileged to have the one of the finest Safety and Health Departments in the labor movement. All of the IAM members who work hard every day to ensure our members return home each day are a big part of that outstanding effort.”

“This monument is not only a reminder to always honor our fallen brothers and sisters,” said IAM Safety and Health Director Mike Flynn. “It also serves as a reminder to all of us to work harder to prevent any more of our members from being killed or injured on the job.”

Click here for more information about the IAM Workers’ Memorial.

United Launch Alliance Negotiation Prep

Tue. August 23, 2011

Members of the IAM Negotiating Committee, representing workers at United Launch Alliance facilities in Florida, Alabama and California, met recently at the Winpisinger Center to prepare for upcoming talks.

Local Lodges at Cape Canaveral AFS, FL, Decatur, AL and Vandenberg AFB, CA are preparing for tough negotiations with the United Launch Alliance. The 900 IAM members build, maintain and launch Atlas and Delta rockets that lift U.S. space vehicles.

The Local Negotiating Committees met at the William W. Winpisinger Center to train, plan and build negotiating strategies for the upcoming talks. The Center’s week-long Negotiation Preparation for Bargaining Committees class fit the bill for the Committee, providing training in proposal analysis, labor law and collective bargaining tactics.

The week culminated in a negotiations simulation. “It doesn’t seem like a simulation,” said Business Representative Nick Mrdjenovich. “It’s tough, and you feel the same as you do in actual negotiations. It’s quite realistic.”

Winpisinger Center Director Chris Wagoner filled the role of company representative.

“The newly-elected members of the Committee now have a feel for what it’s like at the table,” said Aerospace Coordinator John Crowdis. “The Committee developed a plan and strategy for these negotiations during our week at the Harbor, and we’re ready for these important negotiations.”

The Air Capital of the World

Fri. August 19, 2011

August 19, 2011 - Wichita, Kansas is called the air capital of the world for good reason. Because this is where aerospace lives and thrives.

Click here to view the video.