FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2009
Labor will keep fighting for health bill
But "substantial changes" needed in Senate legislation, says Trumka

The following was released Thursday by the AFL-CIO:

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka 
On Health Care Bill

(December 17, 2009) -- The labor movement has been fighting for health care for nearly 100 years and we are not about to stop fighting now, when it really matters.

But for this health care bill to be worthy of the support of working men and women, substantial changes must be made. The AFL-CIO intends to fight on behalf of all working families to make those changes and win health care reform that is deserving of the name.

The absolute refusal of Republicans in the Senate to support health care reform and the hijacking of the bill by defenders of the insurance industry have brought us a Senate bill that is inadequate: It is too kind to the insurance industry.

Genuine health care reform must bring down health costs, hold insurance companies accountable, assure that Americans can get the health care they need and be financed fairly.

• That’s why we are championing a public health insurance option: It is the way to break the stranglehold of the insurance industry over consumers that has led to double digit premium increases virtually every year.
• Employers must pay their fair share.
• And the benefits of hard-working Americans cannot be taxed to pay for health care reform -- that’s no way to rein in insurance companies and it’s the wrong way to pay for health care reform.

Those are the changes for which we will be fighting in the coming days.

The Senate bill does some good things: It will provide health insurance to 30 million more Americans and provide subsidies to low income individuals and families. Benefits will have to meet minimum standards and insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime or unreasonable annual limits. The bill also includes some relief for plans with early retirees as well as delivery system reforms that may lead to lower costs over the long haul. And Senate leaders have made a commitment to close the Medicare prescription drugs donut hole which is so costly to seniors.

But because it bends toward the insurance industry, the Senate bill will not check costs in the short term, and its financing asks working people and the country to pay the price, even as benefits are cut.

The House bill is the model for genuine health care reform. Working people cannot accept anything less than real reform.

Click here for more information about the AFL-CIO's positions on health care reform.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2009
State employees making sacrifices
WFSE members have already given up $1 billion to shore up state budget

The following guest column by Greg Devereux, Executive Director of the Washington Federation of state Employees, AFSCME Council 28, appears in today's edition of The (Tacoma) News Tribune:

StaTE EMPLOYEES DOING THEIR SHARE WITH LESS

The News Tribune editorial Wednesday attacking state employees and their unions is off base.

The editorial distorts what the governor said in the wake of her all-cuts budget. The editorial sends the message that state employee unions have dug in their heels and put their interests above the interests of public safety, the vulnerable, college students and other programs vital for our quality of life in Washington.

The fact is, the 40,000 members of the Washington Federation of State Employees have sacrificed more than $1 billion in pay raises, health benefits, pension payments and jobs (through layoffs).

Earlier this year, in the face of the economic crisis, state employee unions went back to the table. In an unprecedented move, we re-opened our contracts and sacrificed $200 million in negotiated pay raises, including adjustments for those more than 25 percent behind their counterparts in the private and public sectors.

We sacrificed another $200 million in health care takeaways. True, we retained the 12 percent share of premium costs. But with less money going into the overall health plan, state employees will pay 12 percent of much higher overall premium costs. And, for the first time, many will pay deductibles, co-payments and higher point-of-service costs.

State employees will pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars more for health care. Adding up just the out-of-pocket costs that could be paid by 80,000 state employees, that’s an $85 million hit on the economy -- money that won’t be spent on goods and services from the private sector to help recover our economy.

Outside the contract, the Legislature cut $300 million in pension payments and ordered the layoffs of some 3,500 state employees. The governor’s 2010 supplemental budget plan calls for another 1,500 job cuts.

State employees are working harder because there are fewer of them. That increases caseloads for children’s services social workers and community corrections officers trying to supervise offenders in the face of legislative mandates that have watered down their ability to protect our neighborhoods.

Sacrifices are supposed to yield something. But we’ve yet to see our members’ sacrifices translate to more resources for public safety or assurances that Rainier School’s disabled residents won’t be thrown out onto the streets of Buckley or that those in the successful Program for Adaptive Living Skills at Western State Hospital won’t end up cut off or in the Pierce County Jail.

In many cases, state employees could sacrifice everything and take on even heavier workloads and it won’t make a difference. That’s because many of the cuts have nothing to do with fiscal concerns. Republicans and Democrats alike recognize that many special interests are using the economic crisis to close institutions or cut public safety as a matter of policy, not fiscal responsibility.

One prominent conservative, Rep. Dan Roach, R-Sumner, summed it up at an Oct. 22 town hall meeting in Buckley when a consultant’s report first called for the closure of Rainier School. “There is no monetary gain on the state level. It costs more money, and it will cost lives,” Roach said, referring to the increased mortality rate when California closed its institutions for the disabled.

(Roach is no shill for unions; he has only a 26 percent career voting record with the Washington State Labor Council.)

So, the issue is not about whether state employees have to sacrifice even more. It’s about how any sacrifices will make a difference.

The truth is, state services have been cut to the bone. It’s a time for shared sacrifices that make a difference, not potshots using the rejected rhetoric of Dino Rossi and Tim Eyman. Such rhetoric is penny wise and pound foolish. In essence, most state programs are safety net services for our communities. If those services, like the Basic Health Plan and Government Assistance for the Unemployed, are eliminated, our communities have no safety net.

We need to generate new revenue and close some of the $14.8 billion (out of a total $98.5 billion) in tax loopholes that could easily be ended or suspended.

Given the magnitude of our state fiscal crisis, we face a critical crossroad. If we keep cutting services, we lose the vital safety net for our communities. The burden cannot disproportionately be levied on teachers and state workers.

It is time that we all pulled together and shouldered the burden equally. We cannot preserve our quality of life in this state unless all of us help replace lost revenue.

Greg Devereux is executive director of the Washington Federation of State Employees.

^{Copyright © 2009 --  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO}