MAKE U.S. HEALTHIER and WEALTHIER: PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL
>            LABOR DAY: UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE
>
> James V. Bertolone . Guest essayist . August 29, 2008
>
> This coming Labor Day, working people from coast to coast will be
> working for candidates who are ready to turn around our health care
> system, turn around our economy, turn around the decline of the middle
> class and turn around America.
>
> Our polling shows that more than 80 percent of Americans think our
> country is heading in the wrong direction; that our health care system
> costs too much, excludes too many, covers too little and is getting
> worse. The drive for universal health care coverage is mobilizing
> thousands of working people in this year's election cycle.
>
> Whether measured by the World Health Organization, the medical
> profession or our own government's statistics, our health care costs
> nearly twice as much per person as that in other industrialized societies.
>
> Of America's gross domestic product, health care costs totaled 17
> percent in 2006, and now in 2008 totals more than $7,000 per person.
>
> With costs continuing to rise in a contracting economy, we apparently
> are heading for $1 out of every $5 spent in our $14 trillion economy
> going to health care by about the end of this decade.
>
> While other countries have universal health care, we have more than 47
> million Americans with no health insurance and more than 25 million
> underinsured.
>
> We rank 24th among industrialized countries and 37th overall in the key
> areas for how long we live, infant mortality and immunizations. Only in
> health care costs does the United States rank No. 1.
>
> We also pay nearly 50 percent more than most industrialized countries
> for prescription drugs.
>
> In most other countries, the concept of for-profit health care insurance
> is alien, as health care is considered a universal right.
>
> In a for-profit system, health care companies increase profits by
> denying coverage to those at risk, such as the elderly and those with
> pre-existing conditions, and by denying medical procedures and tests.
>
> I have yet to meet a person covered by Medicare who wishes to lose that
> coverage to be at the mercy of for-profit health insurance.
>
> The 15,000 doctors who belong to Physicians for a National Health
> Program say that 60 percent of the uninsured and 28 percent of insured
> Americans go without needed care due to costs, resulting in more than
> 18,000 deaths per year.
>
> The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 1,100 mayors, in June
> endorsed HR 676, single-payer Medicare for all. Back in 2003, an article
> in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that nearly one-third of
> U.S. health care costs, $2,300 per person, were due to administration
> and profits. The article concluded that a single-payer system would
> reduce administrative costs by $1,150 per person, saving $350 billion a
> year, enough to insure all uninsured Americans. We know these costs have
> risen in the past five years.
>
> In our state, there is a large concern about the high cost of property
> and school taxes. Imagine covering all health care costs for all our
> police, fire, state, county, city, town and school district employees
> for less than $4,000 per person, the average cost of universal health
> care coverage in other industrialized nations. The thousands saved per
> employee would result in real tax savings.
>
> Companies' health care costs put us at a competitive disadvantage in the
> global economy. Health care costs thwart startup businesses. And they
> hinder workers' mobility if a potential job excludes coverage for a
> spouse's or child's pre-existing serious or chronic condition.
>
> This issue is also about family values. We know the primary cause of
> divorce and family breakup is financial strain. Nearly half of all
> bankruptcies are due to medical issues, while the other half are due to
> job loss. In our system, job loss and loss of health insurance are the
> same issue.
>
> For-profit, deregulated health care is a wound on our country's soul.
> Labor, with this election cycle and our advocacy after the election,
> will not stop until universal health care is achieved for all - and we
> turn around America.
>
> Happy Labor Day.
>
>                                                #30#
>
> Distributed by:
> Kay Tillow
> All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
> c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
> 1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
> Louisville, KY 40217
> (502) 636 1551
> Email: nursenpo@aol.com
> 08/29/08
>

John J. Sweeney
President, AFL-CIO
Remarks to the Democratic National Convention
Denver, Colorado
August 26, 2008

All over America, children like Marcus Lewis are riding their bikes, starting sixth grade and dreaming of breaking Olympic records—or just finding a good job and raising a family. But unless we turn our country around, they’re not going to make it, not even into the middle class.

Marcus’s mom, Annette, is a single mother who worked hard to get her children where they are today. She works full time and is struggling to send her 18-year-old daughter to college. But after the rent and the bills, there’s hardly enough left over for food.

Dan Luevano is an electrician who worked for a construction company for 10 years, six of them without a raise. When he told his boss he’d be voting for a union so he could bargain for a better life, he was fired.

Steve Skvara is a retired steelworker who learned about unfair trade the hard way—when the giant company where he’d worked went bankrupt, cut his pension by a third, and eliminated his family’s health care.

These are good people, strong people. They work hard and believe in their country, their faith and the future. They can’t afford four more years like the last eight. They need change, and that’s why they all support Barack Obama for President of the United States.

They deserve a better America—an America where every worker can count on a good job, where every family has health care, where every senior enjoys a decent retirement.

They deserve an America that works for everyone, where all workers have a free choice to join unions, to collectively bargain, to lift up their communities and our economy and build a better life for their children.

Whatever happened to the promise of a better America? What happened was that the Bush administration—with the support of Senator McCain—broke that promise, undermined our values and turned our economy into a threshing machine for big business.

Brothers and sisters, this is our chance to create much-needed change for young people like Marcus and rebuild this country we love. We can create the better America that Annette, Steve and Dan—and all of us—deserve. A country whose heart is as big as the hearts of its people. A country that lifts up our families here at home and lights up the world with our vision and values.

On behalf of America’s unions, with 28 million voters in union households, we will win for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and we will create a better America. Thank you and God bless America.

Tough economic times hurt post office

By BETSY TAYLOR – 1 day ago

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service could lose about $2 billion this year due to tough economic times, and it needs to change to meet the demands of the public, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday.

Potter told the National Association of Postmasters of the United States at their convention in St. Louis that the postal service is grappling with issues that many businesses are facing — like how to handle high fuel prices.

"We simply cannot control it," he said. But, he pointed to the postal service's large fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles as a positive step.

Potter praised postmasters and postal workers for their commitment to service and reliability, but said more needs to be done to reduce bureaucracy, cut costs and embrace technology.

"We're probably going to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 billion this year," he said. "If we don't act, we'll lose $2 billion or more the following year."

Earlier this month, the Postal Service reported it lost $1.1 billion in its third quarter ended June 30. Operating revenue was $17.9 billion, down $437 million, or 2.4 percent, compared with the same period last year. Operating expenses totaled $19.0 billion, an increase of $178 million from the third quarter last year.

Total mail volume was 48.5 billion pieces, a 5.5 percent drop from the same period last year.

For the first nine months of its fiscal year, then agency said it lost $1.13 billion.

Postage rates rose a penny in May to the current 42-cent price. Another increase is expected next May, with the amount to be announced in February. Any increase is limited to the rate of inflation.

Potter said Monday improvements to the postal service's Web site and better bar-code technology for mail should yield improved results. He said there are also opportunities to increase the amount of advertising that's done through the mail, and said working with small and mid-sized businesses was the postal service's biggest opportunity for growth.

The keynote speaker, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., expressed concern that financial concerns could threaten rural post offices. She said they should remain open, as they often serve as a community's communication hub and help towns preserve their identities.

"I believe very strongly that our rural communities are a whole lot more than a 5-digit or 9-digit zip code," she said.

Larry Jacobs, the retired postmaster of Bloomington, Ind., said there are safeguards in place to make it hard to close a post office because they are so often integral to keeping small towns thriving.

• U.S. Postal Service: http://www.usps.com

APWU Endorses Barack Obama
Unanimous Convention Vote Follows Live Address

Convention News Bulletin #03-08, Aug. 21, 2008 | PDF

More than 3,200 APWU delegates unanimously endorsed Sen. Barack Obama after the presidential candidate delivered an inspiring message to the union’s convention over a live satellite video feed.

“It’s time to bring about the real change that working families need,” Obama said, adding that it’s time to elect an administration “that doesn’t choke on the word ‘union.’”

Barack Obama thanked the union for its support. Click here to view the full speech.

Obama’s live address was introduced by APWU President William Burrus, whose comment that the convention was about to hear from “the candidate for change” received raucous applause punctuated by several refrains of “Yes We Can!”

Obama thanked the APWU membership for its “commitment to help us win in the fall.”

“You and I share a vision for this country,” said the senator from Illinois. “We believe that Americans should have a fair shot at life. That after a lifetime of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity, and security.”

“We all have mutual obligations to one another. We rise and fall in this country together,” he said.

“But we know that for the last eight years we’ve had a whole different concept in the White House. They called it the ownership society, but what they really meant was, ‘you’re on your own.’

“If you’re a worker and you’ve been laid off from your job, tough luck: You’re on your own.

“If you’re a single mom trying to find healthcare for your kids, tough luck:  You’re on your own.

“If you’re a senior whose pension got dumped, tough luck: You’re on your own.”

Obama told APWU members that they are currently living with "the most anti-labor administration in our memory. It’s not just that this administration hasn’t been fighting for you; they’ve actually tried to stop you from fighting for yourself.”

“It’s time for something new,” Obama said. “It’s time to turn the page. It’s time to bring about the real change that America’s working families need. That change is building an economy that rewards not just wealth, but work — and the workers who create it.” 

Obama received several standing 'O's.

“Change is a president who stands up for working families by strengthening the Family and Medical Leave Act. Who doesn’t denigrate public service by privatizing good public jobs every chance he gets. A president who protects your wages and the quality public service that American all across this country depend on. Change is a president who’s walked on picket lines.”

“Who lets unions do what they do best, and organize our workers,” he said, then adding, “and who will finally make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land.”

The Obama comment on the legislation drew perhaps the loudest and most sustained applause. When he completed his speech moments later and the chants of “Yes We Can!” had died down, President Burrus asked Tara Woods, chairperson of the Formal Resolutions Committee, to introduce Resolution 147, “Endorse Barack Obama for President.”

After she proposed that the APWU assembly in Las Vegas endorse Barack Obama, the delegates voted in voices loud and unified.  

“And there are none opposed,” Burrus said.

“It is unanimous. So ordered.”

Convention Adopts Changes to the Union Constitution

Delegates to the union’s National Convention voted to strengthen representation Aug. 20, approving a constitutional change that would eliminate non-functioning locals and require them to merge with other locals or become members-at-large. The controversial resolution had been debated extensively in pre-convention meetings in the days leading up to the vote, and it was re-written and amended several times before it was adopted.

Constitution Committee Chair Kevin Gallagher presented the report.

“Our goal was to do away with locals that are not effectively representing their members,” said Constitution Committee Chairman Kevin Gallagher, of the Scranton (PA) Local.  “Initially we focused on the smallest locals — those with fewer than 10 members — but as convention delegates pointed out, some of those small locals are very effective and some larger locals are not.

“We rewrote the resolution to focus on how well locals function – not on their size.

“The core duty of our union is representation,” he noted. “Locals must meet that responsibility or face consequences.

“Locals that have been floundering without leadership will be encouraged to join with better functioning locals. If that is not feasible, their folks will be encouraged to become members-at-large of their state organizations.  The locals that meet their responsibilities – regardless of their size — will be able to continue as they are presently chartered.”

Military Leave

Delegates voted overwhelmingly to protect the union status of members on military leave if their pay is insufficient to cover dues. 

“APWU members who have chosen to serve their country should not be required to suffer or forfeit their right to union membership,” the resolution declared.

Jerry Sirois

“There is no reason someone serving our country should not be accommodated if their dues lapses,” said Jerry Sirois, president of the Minneapolis Area Local. The delegates overwhelmingly agreed. In other action, delegates voted to require union members who are on the rolls of OWCP (Office of Workers Compensation) to pay their fair share of dues.

Convention delegates also approved a measure to change the titles of the Legislative Director and Assistant Director to Legislative and Political Director and Assistant Director, so that the titles would more accurately reflect the duties of the positions.

Contrary to the recommendation of the Constitution Committee, delegates voted to increase the dues of members of the union’s Retirees Department from $2 per month to $3 per month.

Delegates also adopted several amendments affecting the Support Services Division, changing the title of the National Business Agent to Support Services Division Director; adding the director to the union’s National Executive Board, and approving a motion to include postal nurses, who recently joined the APWU, in the division.

Exhibit Hall Activities: Good for you, Good for the Union

Legislative Department Presents Briefing
On Grassroots Preparation for Fall Elections

Presiding over a post-convention-day meeting under what will be their new titles, APWU Legislative and Political Department Director Myke Reid and Assistant Director Steve Albanese surveyed the political landscape and briefed delegates on the union’s action plan for helping to put Barack Obama in the White House and elect more legislators who will stand up for working families.

Myke Reid

Particular attention was given to the need to meet the union’s COPA fund-raising goals, and to get more members involved in the AFL-CIO Labor 2008 program.

The union legislative department’s five grassroots coordinators, hired early this year, introduced themselves to the delegates and gave summaries of their political activities.

Aaron Carmella, the grassroots coordinator for the Southern Region, said that he was excited to be taking part in Labor 2008. Carmela is based in Tampa, and he noted that it was a particularly interesting time in that part of the country.

“For once, we’re being proactive in the South,” he said. “It’s not all damage control.” 

In the Central Region, Donna Dean is based in Dayton, but says she did a lot of traveling early in her tenure, attending APWU state conventions as far away as North Dakota.

Steve Albanese

“I was in that state while we were working on fighting the proposed changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act,” she recounted. “While there, I was part of the campaign to get members to send comments to the Department of Labor Web site. I was hoping to get 70 percent of the convention delegates to take part, but APWU activists urged me to get everyone involved.

“We came close,” she said, “with 98 percent of the attendees writing to Labor in opposition to the changes to FMLA.”

Long-time APWU member Janice Kelble is the grassroots coordinator for the Northeast Region, and is based in New Hampshire.

“I’ve always been a strong proponent of affiliation with the AFL-CIO labor bodies,” she said. “I like how the APWU has been encouraging locals to participate in the central labor councils and have seen the effect on elections in my home state.”

“Labor Federation affiliation is just another example of how when we all work together, I think we can move mountains.”

Michael Points, the newest member of the coordinator program, works the Western Region from a base in Pasadena, in Southern California.

Several hundred delegates attended the political action briefing after the convention session of Wednesday.

“Among the campaigns I’m working on are for the Udall brothers.” Tom Udall is running for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico and Mark Udall is trying to win a Senate seat in Colorado.

“It’s a chance to replace two anti-labor Republicans with two pro-labor Democrats,” Points said.

Grassroots coordinators are tasked with gathering support for pro-labor legislation, and Points noted that the Udalls, both currently members of the U.S. House of Representatives, were two of the earliest to sign on as co-sponsors of H.R. 4236,
the Mail Network Protection Act.

As the union’s Eastern Region grassroots coordinator, Ian Stublarec works in an office at APWU headquarters in Washington, DC.

Stublarec expressed enthusiasm for the Legislative and Political Department’s E-Team. “This is a great way to get our union mobilized,” he said of the e-mail alerts that APWU E-Team members receive on issues of importance to them and to other workers.

Reid stressed the importance of getting everyone involved, outlining for convention delegates the APWU’s plan to get volunteers to take part in Labor 2008. “We need to get as many people as possible out into the neighborhoods, talking about Barack Obama and other pro-worker candidates,” he said.

Private-Sector Success Story in Cincinnati

Two of the APWU’s newest activists received a strong ovation from the union convention on Monday and were collectively congratulated for their work in helping to organize and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the privately operated Cincinnati Mail Transportation Equipment Service Center (MTESC).

“This is a very good agreement for a first contract,” said Mark Dimondstein, the APWU’s lead field organizer.

David Dixon, left, and Jani Coffey listen as Mark Dimondstein talks about their struggle for a first contract.

Dimondstein introduced two MTESC stewards, David Dixon and Jani Coffey, who he said were active in both the organizing campaign and the contract negotiations.

“The story was all too typical,” Dimondstein said. “A story of how difficult it is — but how achievable it is — to organize, unionize, and sign contracts.

“It was a seven- to eight-year struggle,” he said. “They faced firings, threats, intimidation, lost elections, overturned elections, new elections... all with a company that would not negotiate until forced to in court.”

The agreement, ratified in May, went into effect July 1 and covers approximately 120 workers. It is the fourth of 22 privately-operated MTESC’s to have its workers represented by the APWU.

“Every one of those places has a collective bargaining agreement that the workers can be proud of and are proud of,” Dimondstein told convention delegates. “And  you’ll be very proud of this: Every one of them is a closed union shop, where everyone pays union dues.”

“This struggle encompassed a period of three different local presidents in Cincinnati,” Dimondstein added, “but each made this organizing work a priority, and the national APWU never let up in its support.”

“The achievement of a contract is a tribute to these workers and their resiliency and determination,” he told convention delegates, “and to everyone here today.”

POWER Holding Strong

Post-Convention Workshop Registration

The APWU Research and Education Department is offering 32 workshops on Saturday, and it is not too late to register for many of them.

You can still sign up for the Post-Convention workshops today and tomorrow, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Credentials Committee Report

As presented by Chairperson Geneva Greenlee of the Indiana APWU, the preliminary report of the APWU Credentials Committee for Wednesday, Aug. 20, is as follows:

The 19th Biennial Convention’s 3,218 delegates represent 415 locals, 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Also in attendance are 85 national officers and five Retirees Department delegates.