Monthly Archives: March 2010

elections

Joe Hoeffel Demands Tom Corbett withdraw lawsuit against healthcare reform

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Democratic Candidate for Governor Joe Hoeffel

PA-Gov: Hoeffel Blasts Misguided Corbett Anti-Health Suit

Tom Borthwick | March 29, 2010 | 4:10 pm

Below is the text of a Press Release from the Hoeffel campaign on the issue of Corbett.  It sums up a lot of how I feel, and I think a lot of Pennsylvanians feel, about Corbett’s crusade to help insurance companies at the

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Hoeffel today castigated Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett for “acting against the best interests of Pennsylvanians” by joining fellow right-wing attorneys general in a lawsuit against the new federal health care law.

At a press conference in the rotunda of the State Capitol, Hoeffel said that Corbett “is acting in collusion with a bloc of right-wing state attorneys general to advance an extremist agenda.”

Hoeffel went on to say that this is the fourth time Corbett has joined with his fellow conservative attorneys general to oppose legislation that would protect Pennsylvanians.  Passing out a fact sheet detailing his charges, Hoeffel pointed out that on at least three other occasions Corbett has joined with the same 10 AGs to twice oppose protecting the safety of their citizens, protecting consumer rights, and, now, opposing critically needed health care reforms.

Continue reading Joe Hoeffel Demands Tom Corbett withdraw lawsuit against healthcare reform →

elections

Tell Corbett to Drop the Lawsuit against Healthcare

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(This post submitted by Mike Sabat, USW member from Raccoon Township.)

Just hours after Congress passed health insurance reform, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett joined a lawsuit to block it. He joined 10 other Republican attorneys general who are pledging to take it to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Tom Corbett is using our tax dollars to sue the United States in an effort to block health care reforms that offer huge benefits to the people of our state. Who is he representing?

We know Corbett isn’t representing the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians with pre-existing conditions who will be guaranteed coverage, or the 151,000 small businesses who will receive tax credits and other assistance to help them afford coverage, or the 2.2 million people who will receive improved Medicare benefits, or the 10.7 million residents with health insurance who are now protected from arbitrary premium hikes and insurance cancellations if they get sick.

Does Tom Corbett represent you?

Continue reading Tell Corbett to Drop the Lawsuit against Healthcare →

elections

WHY I WANT TO HEAR WHAT WILLIAM LUCY HAS TO SAY

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Willam Lucy (2nd from right) in 1985 march to protest South African ban on funeral marches with Richard Hatcher, Mary Futrell, Gerald McEntee, and Paul Newman

BEAVER-LAWRENCE CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL HUMAN RIGHTS BANQUET

FEATURING WILLIAM LUCY

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY BOBBY SHORT

APRIL 10th – 6:00 SOCIAL HOUR 7:00 MEAL

AT THE FEZ IN ALIQUIPPA

PDA TABLE $30 PER PERSON

TO JOIN US CALL TINA SHANNON 724-843-0545

—————————————————————————————————

WHY I WANT TO HEAR WHAT WILLIAM LUCY HAS TO SAY

BY TINA B SHANNON

 March 26, 2010

Although I’ve never met him, I’m looking forward to hearing William Lucy speak. Learning about him enabled me to imagine a world where justice triumphs.

       When the Beaver-Lawrence County Labor Council announced that he was going to be the keynote speaker at the upcoming human rights banquet, I didn’t know who he was. But I thought this would be a good opportunity to gather people together to support our friends in labor.

       I heard that he was a labor leader who had worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. But I wasn’t really excited about William Lucy speaking in Beaver County until I did some research.

       William Lucy left college before he received his degree. He became an assistant materials and research engineer for Costa County California. There he found his life’s work, but it wasn’t in the materials and research department. William Lucy joined AFSCME, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. Soon he was working for the union.

       A year later, in 1968, the Memphis sanitation workers went on strike against terrible working conditions and shamefully low wages. The union sent him to Memphis to work on the campaign. This is the campaign that developed the slogan “I am a man”.

Continue reading WHY I WANT TO HEAR WHAT WILLIAM LUCY HAS TO SAY →

Economy, labor

Steelworkers Elaborate on Worker-Ownership Jobs Effort

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Photo: Worker-Owner at MCC Coop

The Mondragon Alliance:

The Goal Is to Create Jobs

By Putting People First

By Rob Witherell

United Steel Workers

Keynote Speech at Western Mass.
Jobs with Justice Conference
March 6, 2010
—  An official unemployment rate of 10%
—  A real rate of unemployment and underemployment of 17%
—  Millions of good paying jobs lost, including 2 million manufacturing jobs in the past year alone
—  Stagnating wages
—  Frozen pensions and inadequate 401(k) plans
—  Sky rocketing health insurance costs
—  Millions of people without health insurance
—  Millions of people falling into poverty
—  Millions of people receiving food stamps to feed their families
—  Millions of people homeless and millions more struggling to stay in the homes they have

In the middle of the worst recession we’ve seen in the past 70 years, conservative politicians in Washington, DC are defiantly putting the purity of their ideals before the reality of the painful consequences.  Congress is not a high school debate club.  People need help, not talking points.

Wall Street executives, who were part of creating this crisis, were the first ones with their hands out, asking for help from Main Street taxpayers.  We gave them billions and billions of dollars.  As panic began to recede, they gave some of those billions back rather than have to live with the few strings attached.  These fat cat executives are trying to avoid accountability and transparency, regardless of the cost.  The millions of dollars in bonuses being paid again to executives, while insulting to the rest of us, are less harmful to our economy and our communities than the fact that little has changed in how Wall Street works.  Years of increasing deregulation have left us with a Wild West of finance where anything goes. Continue reading Steelworkers Elaborate on Worker-Ownership Jobs Effort →

elections

Letter on new Health Care Law by Michael Moore

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The Great Thing About the Health Care Law That Has Passed? It Will Save Republican Lives, Too

(An Open Letter to Republicans from Michael Moore)
Monday, March 22nd, 2010

 
To My Fellow Citizens, the Republicans:

Thanks to last night’s vote, that child of yours who has had asthma since birth will now be covered after suffering for her first nine years as an American child with a pre-existing condition.

Thanks to last night’s vote, that 23-year-old of yours who will be hit one day by a drunk driver and spend six months recovering in the hospital will now not go bankrupt because you will be able to keep him on your insurance policy.

Thanks to last night’s vote, after your cancer returns for the third time — racking up another $200,000 in costs to keep you alive — your insurance company will have to commit a criminal act if they even think of dropping you from their rolls.

Continue reading Letter on new Health Care Law by Michael Moore →

elections

EPA Will Study Shale Drilling Impact on Water Pollution – Rep. Vitali says suspend permitting now!

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health care, labor

Beaver County Adds Its Voices on Insurance Reform

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Street Heat in Aliquippa:

Congressman Altmire

Pushed to Change Stand,

Abandon Insurance Bigwigs

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

McLean Street in Aliquippa got plenty of heat of the sunny afternoon of March 16, as opposing rallies on the issue of health care gathered out the office of Jason Altmire, the 4th CD’s Democratic ‘Blue Dog’ representative in Congress.

Photo: Steve Kislock

The first rally was at noon, when a crowd of 120 people, organized largely by trade unions, retiree groups and health care workers and activists made a last-ditch effort to get a ‘Yes’ vote on the current insurance reform proposal. But at 4pm, a crowd of more than 300 GOP, Tea Party and anti-reform forces showed up demanding a ‘No’ vote. Earlier, the anti-reformers had tried to disrupt the progressive rally with a horn-blasting truck behind the speakers stand, but they were shooed away. “Remember to turn in your Medicare card,” shouted one of the rally attendees to the departing horn blasters. Both efforts got wide coverage in regional media.

Altmire wasn’t present.  But if he is at all astute and his staff took careful notes, one critical political fact will stand out: those calling for a ‘Yes’ vote were the hard core of his most active supporters in the past, while those calling for a ‘No’ vote are largely unlikely to vote for him over a Republican no matter what his vote is on this issue.

Continue reading Beaver County Adds Its Voices on Insurance Reform →