Health Care news:  ▪  UFCW President Joe Hansen to Wal-Mart: Retailer, heal thyself -- Wal-Mart is changing its public posture (on health care), but it also needs to change its actual corporate practices. And that practice begins with taking responsibility for its own employees.
▪  Today from UPI --  UFCW: Wal-Mart is "posturing" on health care -- Says President Joe Hansen: "Wal-Mart is the largest corporation that provides the least healthcare to employees. But suddenly the company has become a proponent of healthcare for everyone -- apparently, though, as long as Wal-Mart doesn't have to deal with the healthcare needs of its own employees."
▪  From Reuters -- Wal-Mart, SEIU call for universal health care -- New coalition, which also includes the CWA union, Intel Corp., AT&T Inc. and Kelly Services, pledges to convene a national health-care summit by the end of May and to recruit more campaign members.
▪  At the Times' Postman on Politics blog -- What SEIU/Wal-Mart alliance means in Olympia -- One thing (the announcement of the alliance) did in Olympia was shed a little light on why House Speaker Frank Chopp was so adamant last year about stopping the so-called Wal-Mart bill that would have required large companies to spend a certain percentage of payroll on health care.

Legislative news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- WEA pushes political spending bill -- The legislation would, in effect, allow unions to spend fees paid by nonmembers on political campaigns without first getting permission. Union leaders say they are merely trying to clarify a confusing statute. Critics said the union is attempting an end-run on the pending U.S. Supreme Court decision.
▪  In yesterday's Olympian -- Gregoire proposes statewide health care -- She unveils a sprawling plan to rein in health care costs and provide insurance coverage to everyone in the state in five years.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Viaduct surface option eyed -- Speaker Chopp says he's open to the idea of tearing down the structure and improving surface streets and transit instead.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Payday lenders enjoy free ride in Olympia (editorial) -- Regulating the payday lending industry is emerging as an all- or-nothing proposition in Olympia this year.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Donor turns anger into $120,000 more for Eyman -- Mike Dunmire, who has donated more than $1 million in support of Tim Eyman’s past two initiative campaigns, announces that he will help bankroll Eyman’s latest effort to limit state tax increases.
▪  In yesterday's Columbian -- Bill would support "living wage" -- Washington could be the first state in the nation to require living wages for work done by private contractors working for the state, if Rep. Mark Miloscia's HB 1118 wins support in the Legislature. The bill defines a living wage as $8 an hour if health benefits are paid by the employer, $9.50 an hour otherwise. 

Local news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Worker killed in Sound Transit tunnel -- A South Seattle accident that took the life of a worker wasn't the first life-threatening accident at the Sound Transit work site.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Alaska Airlines pilots prepared to strike -- "They're angry. They're tired. They're fatigued," says ALPA President John Prater of the union's 60,000 pilot members. 
▪  In yesterday's Kitsap Sun -- Passenger service may soon end with ballot measure's defeat -- For the second time, Kitsap voters reject a tax increase to support private passenger ferry service.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Snohomish schools, teachers' union make a deal -- The early deal awards 2% raises for each of the next three years on top of state-funded cost-of-living increases.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Tax credits unclaimed by Seattle's low-income workers (op-ed) -- Every year in Washington, more than $75 million in tax credits for low-income workers go unclaimed.

Boeing news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing's presence in Everett grows -- It leases 150,000 square feet at the Harbour Pointe Tech Center in Mukilteo to house 1,000 engineers and tech support workers.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- 787 shedding weight -- Progress made toward cutting 5,000 lbs. off the Dreamliner. "We're about half way to our weight reduction goal," says CEO Richard Simmons.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined Congressional leaders, civil rights activists and workers Tuesday to announce the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act, a critical piece of legislation that would help restore workers' freedom to form or join unions to bargain for better wages and working conditions. The bill was introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is already co-sponsored by 232 U.S. Representatives, including Washington state Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith.

"The best opportunity for working women and men to get ahead economically is by coming together with their co-workers to bargain with their employer for a better life through a union," Sweeney said.

The Employee Free Choice Act is desperately needed to level the playing field for working people by fixing a badly broken system in which workers are routinely denied their freedom form or join unions to improve their lives, Sweeney and Congressional leaders said.  The bill would strengthen penalties for companies that break the law by coercing or intimidating employers.  It also establishes a third-party mediation process when employers and employees can't agree on a first contract. And it enables employees to form unions when a majority express their decision to join the union by signing authorization card.

Unions have long given working people a toehold on the middle class.  Government statistics show that working men and women who have a union today make 30 percent more than workers who don't have a union, and are much more likely to have health insurance and retirement plans.

"The benefits of workers uniting to bargain for a better life are clear that's why more than half of workers -- 60 million -- who don't already have a union say they would join one today if given the chance," Sweeney said.  "Yet far too few working people ever get that chance.  The current system for forming unions and bargaining is badly broken."

Speakers pointed out that under the current process for forming or joining unions, employers routinely harass, intimidate and even fire workers for trying to form a union, and current labor law is helpless to stop them. One in five union activists is fired for union activity, according to a study by the Center for Economic Policy Research.  Seventy-eight percent of companies require supervisors to meet one-on-one with employees they directly supervise urging them to vote against the union, according to research by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University.  Even after workers successfully form a union, they can't get a contract one third of the time.

Recent opinion research shows that the vast majority of Americans support the Employee Free Choice Act.   Seventy-seven percent of Americans say it's important to have strong laws that give workers the freedom to choose to have a union without interference from employers, according to research by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. Sixty-nine percent of voters said they were supportive of the Employee Free Choice Act as a means to help workers level the playing field.  Sixty-five percent of the public says it approves of unions, and only 25 percent disapprove. 

The introduction of legislation to give workers a free choice on whether to form unions to improve their lives comes at a time when working people are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future, Sweeney said. Working families are struggling to make ends meet as wages stagnate, health care costs rise and retirement security vanishes. Only 23 percent of Americans expect the next generation's standard of living to be better than today's, according to polling by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.

"Ordinary Americans are not sharing in the benefits of today's economy in fact, they're being left behind," Sweeney said.

The legislation is a key element of the new Democratic majority in Congress plan to fortify the nation's middle class, which has been hit hard by outsourcing, a lack of good paying jobs with benefits and a growing income gap, Miller said.

"We cannot continue on our nation's current path, where CEOs have complete freedom to negotiate lavish pay and retirement packages for themselves while workers have no leverage to make their own lives better," Miller said.  "Our economy is more unequal than it has been at any point since before the New Deal."

Bill Lawhorn, who worked at the Consolidated Biscuit Company in McComb, Ohio, told reporters at today's news conference that he was fired for trying to form a union through the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union. Lawhorn said, he's struggled to find a decent-paying job and provide for his family since he was fired in 2002 . Even though he believes his firing was illegal - a belief that's been supported by several National Labor Relations Board rulings - he hasn't received a cent of back pay or has he been offered his job back.  "A supervisor told me that if the union won the election, I would be fired.  And sure enough, the day after the election, I was out of there," Lawhorn said.  "The laws are set up for the employer to win.  Even win they lose, they win."

The following statement by Joe Hansen, President of the United Food and Commercial Workers union was released Wednesday:

STATEMENT ON WAL-MART’S CALL FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Joseph T. Hansen, UFCW International President

 

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) supports universal, affordable and quality health care coverage. The UFCW believes that we need to build a broad-based coalition to bring about health care reform. And we applaud everyone, management and labor, that calls for universal care.

 

It’s not appropriate to take the stage with a company that refuses to remedy its mistreatment of workers, among other irresponsible practices. Wal-Mart is actually decreasing health care coverage to employees and facing the largest gender discrimination case in the history of this country.

 

The UFCW has a history of working with responsible employers -- employers who step up and provide good wages and benefits to employees even in difficult, competitive times.

 

Wal-Mart is the largest corporation that provides the least health care to employees. But suddenly the company has become a proponent of health care for everyone -- apparently, though, as long as Wal-Mart doesn’t have to deal with the health care needs of its own employees.

 

Wal-Mart is changing its public posture, but it also needs to change its actual corporate practices. And that practice begins with taking responsibility for its own employees.

 

We do need to reform and restructure the current employer-based health system to achieve universal coverage, but until we have such reform, Wal-Mart needs to take responsibility for providing affordable health care to employees.

American workers need universal health care. The way out of our country’s health care crisis is national reform that brings about affordable, quality universal care.

 

In addition to our continuing advocacy for universal care, the UFCW will continue our fight for good health care benefits for workers at the bargaining table. And we will continue our fight on behalf of Wal-Mart workers so that they have affordable health care benefits and wages.

 

We will not settle for empty expediency.