by Seth Michaels, Apr 20, 2009

Pennsylvania union members have delivered tens of thousands of letters in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to Sen. Arlen Specter.

Is it common practice for congressional staff to throw away letters from constituents hoping to have their voices heard? That’s what some of Sen. Arlen Specter’s staff threatened to do to thousands of Pennsylvanians who support the freedom to form unions and bargain.

Specter, who once co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act before he flipped on the bill last month, announced he would support a minority filibuster to prevent it from coming to a vote. Despite once saying he was “delighted” to support it, Specter now is advancing falsehoods about the bill, parroting the extremist charge that it would take away the secret ballot process, which it would not.

Rallies asking Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act have taken place across the state.

In response, thousands of union members, community activists, religious and civil rights leaders and other members of the broad coalition in support of the Employee Free Choice Act have taken action across the state to make their voices heard. In the past two weeks, they have held seven rallies outside of Specter’s offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Harrisburg, Erie, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act have gathered more than 50,000 letters, 35,000 postcards and 12,000 petitions from Pennsylvanians who support the freedom to form unions and bargain.

Specter’s staff grew increasingly aggressive at every event, Pennsylvania union members report. At Specter’s Wilkes-Barre office, where union members and allies delivered thousands of letters and petitions, United Steelworkers (USW) member Tim Waters reports that they were told by a staffer, “as soon as you leave, your letters will go straight in the trash.”

Hello? These are Pennsylvania residents whom the senator represents. This is the way you treat your constituents?

Hundreds of Pennsylvanians took time out this week to make their feelings known to their senator, bringing with them postcards, letters and petitions from tens of thousands of supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act.

They deserve a respectful hearing.

from AFL-CIO blog

Two more California Labor Councils have endorsed HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

In Fresno, the Central Labor Council of Fresno, Madera, Tulare & King Counties has also endorsed HR 676, reports Randy Ghan, Council Executive Secretary Treasurer.

by Randy Shannon

March 31, 2009

SEIU members and Butler concerned citizens and nursing home residents held a march and rally to protest the proposed sale of the Butler County owned Sunnyview Nursing Home to private interests.

Continue reading Butler, PA SEIU Workers, Citizens, and Nursing Home Residents Oppose the Sale of Sunnyview Nursing Homes →

Bill Moyers interviews William K. Black, a professor of economics and law, an expert in criminal fraud, prosecutor of the S&L bandits, and the man who exposed the Keating 5, the Congressmen and Senators who took bribes to facilitate the S&L fraud. The straightforward and profound revelations by Mr. Black  clarify the economic and political nature of the current financial crisis. And his solutions just make plain sense. Listen closely, read the transcript, and please pass this along to everyone you know. The knowledge shared here is very powerful.

Randy Shannon

go to the next page for the rest of the interview

Continue reading Bill Moyers Journal: The Credit Fraud, The Crash, The Bailout, and The Ongoing Coverup Explained →

Portland, OR   Laborers Local 483 (LIUNA) has endorsed HR 676, single
payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers
(D-MI).  The local represents 900 City of Portland workers in the
Maintenance, Parks and Environmental Services Bureau.

Wesley Buchholz, Director of Political Action for the local who made the
presentation to the membership meeting, said:  “Like the rest of the
nation we are in dire economic times and facing layoffs.  Relief must come
for all working people.  HR 676 is the most sensible way to provide
massive aid both economic and physical.  Our members want to add their
voices to the demand for social and economic justice and join this
groundswell movement attempting to amend the tyrannical system that values
profits before people.”

Is a public Medicare-like option in a market of private plans a viable solution?

Response by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler:

The “public plan option” won’t work to fix the health care system for 2 reasons.

1 – It foregoes at least 84% of the administrative savings available through single payer. The public plan option would do nothing to streamline the administrative tasks (and costs) of hospitals, physicians offices, and nursing homes, which would still contend with multiple payers, and hence still need the complex cost tracking and billing apparatus that drives administrative costs. These unnecessary provider administrative costs account for the vast majority of bureaucratic waste. Hence, even 95% of Americans who are currently privately insured were to join the public plan (and it had overhead costs at current Medicare levels), the savings on insurance overhead would amount to only 16% of the roughly $400 billion annually achievable through single payer – not enough to make reform affordable.

2 – A quarter century of experience with public/private competition in the Medicare program demonstrates that the private plans will not allow a level playing field. Despite strict regulation, private insurers have successfully cherry picked healthier seniors, and have exploited regional health spending differences to their advantage. They have progressively undermined the public plan – which started as the single payer for seniors and has now become a funding mechanism for HMOs – and a place to dump the unprofitably ill. A public plan option does not lead toward single payer, but toward the segregation of patients; with profitable ones in private plans and unprofitable ones in the public plan.

By Tim WheelerPeople’s Weekly World

New York—About 10,000 protesters marched through the Wall Street financial district April 4 chanting “Money for Healthcare not for war, that is what we’re marching for.”

It was the 42st anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famed “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church April 4, 1967. Many banners and signs bore photos of Dr. King with the message “Beyond War, A New Economy is Possible. Yes We Can.”
The marchers assembled on Broadway above Canal Street and streamed down the avenue at noon led by a contingent of Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Hands off Afghanistan” “Fund Human Needs not War” and “Give Me A J-O-B so I can E-A-T” were some of the thousands of signs and placards.

Rose Taylor of Baltimore was one of many people in wheelchairs who rolled past the New York Stock Exchange. She was holding a sign that read, “We Need a People’s Bank.”

Continue reading Wall Street Echoes People’s Cry: “Healthcare Not Warfare!” →