A program to help the great majority of working Americans who have no long-term care insurance is an under-reported component of the new health care law.
Called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or CLASS Act, the legislation translates into law a concept the late Senator Edward Kennedy and his staff had been working on since 2003. We are indebted to The New York Times for an authoritative explanation of the new program, based on The Times’ discussions with four experts on long-term care issues.
The CLASS Act is not the all-embracing long-term care social insurance program the nation needs. But it breaks significant new ground and provides a structure that can be expanded and strengthened in the years ahead.
Enrollment in the new program is expected to begin in 2013. Participation is voluntary and open to any working person who earns enough each year to pay Social Security taxes. Those who sign up must pay premiums for a vesting period of five years to qualify for benefits. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the average monthly premium will be about $123 (less for younger enrollees, more for older ones).
CLASS is an “opt out” program. That means that if the employer participates, the worker is automatically enrolled unless the worker “opts out.” The enrolled worker becomes eligible for a daily benefit estimated at $75 if he or she needs help, either with two to three “activities of daily living,” or because of cognitive impairment. “Activities of daily living” include eating, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, continence care, and transferring from bed to chair or wheelchair.
Once a person qualifies, the daily benefit continues for as long as it is needed. This could mean many years of payments. About 40% of those currently receiving long-term care are young people who have had accidents or who have developed chronic illnesses.
The CLASS Act is not intended to pay the full cost of 24-hour care or a nursing home. But many persons with disabilities can stay out of nursing homes, or delay admission to one, with the act’s moderate levels of assistance supplementing family care.
Projections indicate that two-thirds of older Americans will sooner or later need long-term care. For all its limitations, the CLASS Act will give working people – those who have the foresight to enroll – an affordable way to avoid institutional care entirely, or at the very least, to ease its economic burden.
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Saturday, May 15, 2010
Public pensions bleed $17 billion in fees
Private equity deal-makers have milked the nation’s ten largest public pension funds of more than $17 billion in fees since 2000, an analysis conducted for the New York Times has revealed.
The big public funds have almost never realized the 20% to 30% returns the private equity people promised. Today many of these funds are struggling to recover from a collapse in the value of their portfolios. State and local pension assets declined by 27.6% from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008, according to the Government Accountability Office.
One study showed that private equity funds underperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index by 3% annually from 1980 to 2003, after accounting for the payment of fees.
In November, 2007, the Washington State Investment Board increased its investment in private equity to 25%. The state’s $75 billion fund is among the most heavily invested in such funds.
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The big public funds have almost never realized the 20% to 30% returns the private equity people promised. Today many of these funds are struggling to recover from a collapse in the value of their portfolios. State and local pension assets declined by 27.6% from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008, according to the Government Accountability Office.
One study showed that private equity funds underperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index by 3% annually from 1980 to 2003, after accounting for the payment of fees.
In November, 2007, the Washington State Investment Board increased its investment in private equity to 25%. The state’s $75 billion fund is among the most heavily invested in such funds.
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Puny death benefit boosted if Baca measure passes
Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill to increase the minuscule $255 benefit paid to a surviving spouse in the event of the death of a Social Security beneficiary. Baca’s bill would increase the payment to 47% of the deceased person’s regular monthly Social Security income, with $255 as the minimum payment.
The bill also calls for paying Social Security benefits for each day that a recipient lives. Under existing law, the survivor gets nothing except the $255 for the month in which the spouse dies.
“It is wrong to shortchange our seniors, especially when they are dealing with the loss of their husband or wife,” Baca said.
The current $255 payment, which has not been adjusted to keep up with living costs, is barely enough to pay for an urn for the ashes of the deceased.
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The bill also calls for paying Social Security benefits for each day that a recipient lives. Under existing law, the survivor gets nothing except the $255 for the month in which the spouse dies.
“It is wrong to shortchange our seniors, especially when they are dealing with the loss of their husband or wife,” Baca said.
The current $255 payment, which has not been adjusted to keep up with living costs, is barely enough to pay for an urn for the ashes of the deceased.
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‘Hold Wall Street accountable,’ says Senator Murray
“It’s time to hold Wall Street accountable,” Senator Patty Murray told a crowded press conference held in a toy store in Seattle’s Wallingford district.
At Murray’s invitation, media representatives heard the first-hand stories of the toy shop owner, an unemployed union construction worker, a senior facing foreclosure on his home and a student whose education funding was wiped out by the collapse of housing values.
“These are people who played by the rules but who paid the price for those on Wall Street who didn’t,” Murray said. “It’s time to end a system that leaves you holding the bag.”
Wall Street gamblers have cost over 150,000 jobs in Washington State, Murray said.
“I will be working to pass a bill that includes a strong consumer protection agency, an end to taxpayer bailouts, and strong regulation to bring transparency into Wall Street’s dark markets,” the senator pledged.
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At Murray’s invitation, media representatives heard the first-hand stories of the toy shop owner, an unemployed union construction worker, a senior facing foreclosure on his home and a student whose education funding was wiped out by the collapse of housing values.
“These are people who played by the rules but who paid the price for those on Wall Street who didn’t,” Murray said. “It’s time to end a system that leaves you holding the bag.”
Wall Street gamblers have cost over 150,000 jobs in Washington State, Murray said.
“I will be working to pass a bill that includes a strong consumer protection agency, an end to taxpayer bailouts, and strong regulation to bring transparency into Wall Street’s dark markets,” the senator pledged.
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10,000 workers invade the bankers’ territory
Ten thousand AFL-CIO union members marched on Wall Street May 2, demanding that financial bigwigs call off the swarm of lobbyists working to gut regulatory reform legislation.
The workers also called for an end to the Street’s focus on speculative investments over business lending, and for the big banks to funnel some of their spare cash into job creation initiatives.
“We are all paying the price for those who knew no limits on their greed,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the crowd. “Eight and a half million jobs – that’s the real cost of bankers’ bonuses and private jets and cute tricks like the one that got Goldman Sachs in trouble.”
The rally began precisely at Wall Street’s 4 p.m. closing hour, with a slow march down a six-block route, followed by Trumka’s speech near the iconic bull at the corner of Wall Street and Broad.
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The workers also called for an end to the Street’s focus on speculative investments over business lending, and for the big banks to funnel some of their spare cash into job creation initiatives.
“We are all paying the price for those who knew no limits on their greed,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the crowd. “Eight and a half million jobs – that’s the real cost of bankers’ bonuses and private jets and cute tricks like the one that got Goldman Sachs in trouble.”
The rally began precisely at Wall Street’s 4 p.m. closing hour, with a slow march down a six-block route, followed by Trumka’s speech near the iconic bull at the corner of Wall Street and Broad.
Back to Home
Thursday, May 6, 2010
A swift response to racism:
Immigration reform now!
An editorial
Arizona has just become an American-style racist police state, where failure to carry immigration documents is a crime, and where a brown skin can get you jailed.
“Racial profiling will be the law” in Arizona, writes William Finnegan in The New Yorker. “Whites will be all right, just as they were in the Jim Crow South. God help everyone else.”
In response to the new law, hundreds of protests and vigils have taken place in Arizona and around the country. A movement is under way to boycott Arizona products and to deny the state its lucrative convention and tourist income.
Meanwhile, in “liberal” Seattle, white supremacists, in a sneak dead-of-night attack, vandalized the offices of the Washington Community Action Network.
The vicious attack broke office windows, slashed tires of vehicles, plugged vehicle exhaust pipes and sprayed racist graffiti outside the office, including “RaHoWa,” which stands for “Racial Holy War,” and the number “88,” a symbol for “Heil Hitler.”
Washington CAN is a statewide grassroots community organization working for social, economic and racial justice. It is a leading participant in the current immigrant rights campaign and in the campaign for universal health care.
Racist ugliness is and spreading in our beloved country, and we who cherish basic rights must find effective ways to expose, challenge, combat and defeat it.
Foremost on the national agenda is the urgency of comprehensive immigration reform. Immediate congressional action has been demanded in Seattle and across the country in May 1 rallies and marches.
The immigrant rights movement is calling (1) for the immediate introduction of legislation that will force Republicans in Congress to vote “yes” or “no,” and (2) for executive action from President Obama that will prohibit harsh enforcement and deportations while reform is being enacted.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans condemns all racist and xenophobic acts and supports unconditionally the swift enactment of comprehensive immigration reform. This would afford an essential measure of justice to immigrants, documented and undocumented, and at the same time would represent a powerful statutory rejection of racist ideology.
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An editorial
Arizona has just become an American-style racist police state, where failure to carry immigration documents is a crime, and where a brown skin can get you jailed.
“Racial profiling will be the law” in Arizona, writes William Finnegan in The New Yorker. “Whites will be all right, just as they were in the Jim Crow South. God help everyone else.”
In response to the new law, hundreds of protests and vigils have taken place in Arizona and around the country. A movement is under way to boycott Arizona products and to deny the state its lucrative convention and tourist income.
Meanwhile, in “liberal” Seattle, white supremacists, in a sneak dead-of-night attack, vandalized the offices of the Washington Community Action Network.
The vicious attack broke office windows, slashed tires of vehicles, plugged vehicle exhaust pipes and sprayed racist graffiti outside the office, including “RaHoWa,” which stands for “Racial Holy War,” and the number “88,” a symbol for “Heil Hitler.”
Washington CAN is a statewide grassroots community organization working for social, economic and racial justice. It is a leading participant in the current immigrant rights campaign and in the campaign for universal health care.
Racist ugliness is and spreading in our beloved country, and we who cherish basic rights must find effective ways to expose, challenge, combat and defeat it.
Foremost on the national agenda is the urgency of comprehensive immigration reform. Immediate congressional action has been demanded in Seattle and across the country in May 1 rallies and marches.
The immigrant rights movement is calling (1) for the immediate introduction of legislation that will force Republicans in Congress to vote “yes” or “no,” and (2) for executive action from President Obama that will prohibit harsh enforcement and deportations while reform is being enacted.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans condemns all racist and xenophobic acts and supports unconditionally the swift enactment of comprehensive immigration reform. This would afford an essential measure of justice to immigrants, documented and undocumented, and at the same time would represent a powerful statutory rejection of racist ideology.
Back to Home
Death in April
By Will Parry
April brought to U.S. industrial workers a springtime harvest of death, and to their families and communities a bitter season of grief.
In Anacortes on April 2, at the Tesoro refinery, five workers were killed in an explosion and fire. Two other workers failed to survive severe burns.
Three days later, 29 coal miners died in an explosion and fire in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. (See story on page 5.)
On April 20, a fire and explosion aboard the huge Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana injured 17 workers and left another 11 workers missing. At our deadline, workers were desperately trying to contain an environmentally disastrous spill.
Federal regulators and union officials have warned for years that a pattern of safety violations at oil refineries would lead to such tragedies as the explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes facility. That refinery was cited a year ago for 17 “serious” safety violations that posed a risk of death or serious injury to workers, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
A national program of intensified scrutiny of refineries was undertaken after an explosion in 2005 killed 15 workers at a BP refinery in Texas. Despite the increased inspections, regulators say the industry isn’t doing enough.
“The petroleum industry has a long way to go before we can feel comfortable that workers there are being adequately protected,” said David Michaels, head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
John Bresland, chairman of the federal Chemical Safety Board, charged with investigating such disasters, said the entire industry needs a sharper emphasis on safety. “It’s so frustrating because we keep seeing these accidents,” Bresland said. “They all have different reasons, but it’s all about day-in and day-out attention to detail.”
Daniel Horowitz, a Chemical Safety Board spokesman, said the agency has seen a “disproportionate” number of accidents among the nation’s 150 refineries, compared with thousands of other types of chemical plants dealing with hazardous materials.
All production facilities, whatever the industry, are under unremitting pressure to produce. Production means profit, and any interruption of production cuts into profit.
And the big bosses don’t like that.
Virtually very production facility has a safety program. Safety meetings are held. Safety inspections are made. Safety rules are posted. Recognition is given to departments with the highest number of accident-free days. No doubt the Tesoro refinery has such a program in place.
Despite all that, terrible events continue to cost workers’ lives and to leave their families bereaved. What’s behind these repeated human tragedies?
In real life, safety gives way to shortcuts. Essential maintenance is postponed, and postponed again, because maintenance requires the shutdown of equipment. Over the life of an industrial plant, potential trouble spots multiply. Each one is an industrial time bomb, waiting to be triggered by the first deadly confluence of events.
“The general public has no idea what’s going on with these facilities,” said Kim Nibarger, a health and safety expert with the United Steelworkers. “If they did, they’d be scared half to death.”
Earlier this year, the Steelworkers mailed out a poster to members showing scenes from the fires that rocked a Houston plant in 1989. The poster carried a prophetic warning that “it’s only a matter of time” before more workers would die in another serious refinery fire or explosion.
Federal statistics reveal that every workday, on average, an estimated 177 workers die from work-related causes – 13 from traumatic injuries, 164 from occupational diseases. Each of these deaths is as heartbreaking and unnecessary as those in Anacortes and West Virginia. But unless there are multiple deaths, they go unreported in the media.
Back to Home
April brought to U.S. industrial workers a springtime harvest of death, and to their families and communities a bitter season of grief.
In Anacortes on April 2, at the Tesoro refinery, five workers were killed in an explosion and fire. Two other workers failed to survive severe burns.
Three days later, 29 coal miners died in an explosion and fire in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. (See story on page 5.)
On April 20, a fire and explosion aboard the huge Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana injured 17 workers and left another 11 workers missing. At our deadline, workers were desperately trying to contain an environmentally disastrous spill.
Federal regulators and union officials have warned for years that a pattern of safety violations at oil refineries would lead to such tragedies as the explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes facility. That refinery was cited a year ago for 17 “serious” safety violations that posed a risk of death or serious injury to workers, according to the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.
A national program of intensified scrutiny of refineries was undertaken after an explosion in 2005 killed 15 workers at a BP refinery in Texas. Despite the increased inspections, regulators say the industry isn’t doing enough.
“The petroleum industry has a long way to go before we can feel comfortable that workers there are being adequately protected,” said David Michaels, head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
John Bresland, chairman of the federal Chemical Safety Board, charged with investigating such disasters, said the entire industry needs a sharper emphasis on safety. “It’s so frustrating because we keep seeing these accidents,” Bresland said. “They all have different reasons, but it’s all about day-in and day-out attention to detail.”
Daniel Horowitz, a Chemical Safety Board spokesman, said the agency has seen a “disproportionate” number of accidents among the nation’s 150 refineries, compared with thousands of other types of chemical plants dealing with hazardous materials.
All production facilities, whatever the industry, are under unremitting pressure to produce. Production means profit, and any interruption of production cuts into profit.
And the big bosses don’t like that.
Virtually very production facility has a safety program. Safety meetings are held. Safety inspections are made. Safety rules are posted. Recognition is given to departments with the highest number of accident-free days. No doubt the Tesoro refinery has such a program in place.
Despite all that, terrible events continue to cost workers’ lives and to leave their families bereaved. What’s behind these repeated human tragedies?
In real life, safety gives way to shortcuts. Essential maintenance is postponed, and postponed again, because maintenance requires the shutdown of equipment. Over the life of an industrial plant, potential trouble spots multiply. Each one is an industrial time bomb, waiting to be triggered by the first deadly confluence of events.
“The general public has no idea what’s going on with these facilities,” said Kim Nibarger, a health and safety expert with the United Steelworkers. “If they did, they’d be scared half to death.”
Earlier this year, the Steelworkers mailed out a poster to members showing scenes from the fires that rocked a Houston plant in 1989. The poster carried a prophetic warning that “it’s only a matter of time” before more workers would die in another serious refinery fire or explosion.
Federal statistics reveal that every workday, on average, an estimated 177 workers die from work-related causes – 13 from traumatic injuries, 164 from occupational diseases. Each of these deaths is as heartbreaking and unnecessary as those in Anacortes and West Virginia. But unless there are multiple deaths, they go unreported in the media.
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Seven great reasons to sign up Jane or Joe
1. Jane or Joe will get twelve lively issues of The Retiree Advocate, making them much smarter than friends or family.
2. Think of Joe or Jane as the nucleus for further membership growth. The old “pebble in the pool” principle applies here.
3. You will be building PSARA’s muscle for the titanic political battles that lie ahead. More members equals more clout.
4. You will be rightfully proud of yourself.
5. You will make the editor very happy.
6. Every Jane or Joe you sign up brings us one member closer to our goal of 250 new members in 2010.
7. I forget the seventh reason. The six above should be enough. Go get ‘em!
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2. Think of Joe or Jane as the nucleus for further membership growth. The old “pebble in the pool” principle applies here.
3. You will be building PSARA’s muscle for the titanic political battles that lie ahead. More members equals more clout.
4. You will be rightfully proud of yourself.
5. You will make the editor very happy.
6. Every Jane or Joe you sign up brings us one member closer to our goal of 250 new members in 2010.
7. I forget the seventh reason. The six above should be enough. Go get ‘em!
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29 dead in blast at Upper Big Branch
By Will Parry
As the world now knows, twenty-nine coal miners died April 5 in an explosion in the Upper Big Branch mine, a West Virginia property of Massey Energy. It was the deadliest mining disaster in forty years.
It must have been a shattering explosion. Veteran rescue workers with decades of experience were shaken by the chaos they found a thousand feet down. They said they had never seen destruction on that scale. The blast “turned rail lines into pretzels,” one said.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship tried to shuck off accountability. “Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process,” he said. “There are violations at every coal mine in America.”
True enough. But since 2005, in its 35 underground and 12 mountaintop removal mines, Massey has been cited by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration 38,997 times for violations of safe mining procedures.
The truth that Blankenship evaded was clearly expressed by Kevin Stricklin, an administrator with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
“All explosions are preventable,” Stricklin said. “It’s just making sure you have things in place to keep one from occurring.”
As recently as March of this year, safety officials found 57 infractions at Upper Big Branch including the repeated failure to develop and follow a ventilation plan. Other violations concerned the accumulation of methane gas. The presence of methane led to “several” evacuations in recent months. In combination with the failure to ventilate adequately, methane is an open invitation to explosions.
J. Davitt McAteer, who headed the mine safety agency during the Clinton Administration, said that his preliminary information suggested the explosion of a combination of methane and coal dust. “Think about this,” McAteer said, “We haven’t had a major dust explosion in the country since 1968. That tells you there’s a very fundamental problem here.”
Upper Big Branch, like all Massey properties, is non-union. Blankenship went after the union in the 1980s, with the connivance of the Reagan Administration. Workers at the Massy mines make good wages, but have fewer benefits than workers at union properties. More to the point, where a miner in a union mine could challenge a safety infraction without being fired, fear silences those who work for Massey.
Massey keeps on mining coal despite the flood of fines and citations by the simple device of contesting most of them. Federal officials say Massey contests more safety fines than any other coal mining company in the nation. By contesting the citations, Massey has been able to avoid falling into a “potential pattern of violation” category, a step that would have moved federal regulators closer to being able to shut down operations.
The backlog of contested violations has grown since the 2006 Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act boosted the number of inspectors, stiffened fines and toughened safety regulations. The resulting increase in contested citations has overloaded the federal review commission, which has a backlog of more than 16,600 contested cases.
“The hope and expectation was that operators would comply, rather than leave themselves vulnerable to the increased penalties. Instead, a lot of operators have opted to contest every citation, leading to the backlog at the commission,” said Judy Rivlin, associate general counsel of the United Mine Workers of America.
The backlog is not mere piled-up paperwork. Workers’ lives are at stake when violations continue uncorrected.
Like the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration has been understaffed, underfinanced and lacking in enforcement power.
“The backlog is an enormous problem,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor subcommittee on work force protections. “We need more resources for administrative law judges and solicitors at the Department of Labor to eliminate this problem as soon as possible.”
Blankenship, the CE sometimes arrives at his mining properties in a black helicopter, other times in a black Mercedes. Like many anti-union employers, he seeks to convey the image of a protective father. Last year he hosted a Fourth of July celebration with Ted Nugent as the headliner. After the explosion, he announced he is paying for the dead miners’ funerals. And he refers to his employees as “members,” much as Wal-Mart refers to its employees as “associates.”
Blankenship’s patina of graciousness may be wearing thin. The day after the explosion, he arrived at Upper Big Branch to announce the death toll to families gathered at the site. As he prepared to speak, anguished family members screamed at him for caring more about profits than about miners’ lives.
The home page on Massey Energy’s website declares: “We strive for sustainable excellence in safety. It is our top priority every day.”
But in an irate memo to his deep mine superintendents, Blankenship made it clear his one and only priority is not safety, but to “run coal” at any cost:
“If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that coal pays the bills.”
Back to Home
As the world now knows, twenty-nine coal miners died April 5 in an explosion in the Upper Big Branch mine, a West Virginia property of Massey Energy. It was the deadliest mining disaster in forty years.
It must have been a shattering explosion. Veteran rescue workers with decades of experience were shaken by the chaos they found a thousand feet down. They said they had never seen destruction on that scale. The blast “turned rail lines into pretzels,” one said.
Massey CEO Don Blankenship tried to shuck off accountability. “Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process,” he said. “There are violations at every coal mine in America.”
True enough. But since 2005, in its 35 underground and 12 mountaintop removal mines, Massey has been cited by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration 38,997 times for violations of safe mining procedures.
The truth that Blankenship evaded was clearly expressed by Kevin Stricklin, an administrator with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
“All explosions are preventable,” Stricklin said. “It’s just making sure you have things in place to keep one from occurring.”
As recently as March of this year, safety officials found 57 infractions at Upper Big Branch including the repeated failure to develop and follow a ventilation plan. Other violations concerned the accumulation of methane gas. The presence of methane led to “several” evacuations in recent months. In combination with the failure to ventilate adequately, methane is an open invitation to explosions.
J. Davitt McAteer, who headed the mine safety agency during the Clinton Administration, said that his preliminary information suggested the explosion of a combination of methane and coal dust. “Think about this,” McAteer said, “We haven’t had a major dust explosion in the country since 1968. That tells you there’s a very fundamental problem here.”
Upper Big Branch, like all Massey properties, is non-union. Blankenship went after the union in the 1980s, with the connivance of the Reagan Administration. Workers at the Massy mines make good wages, but have fewer benefits than workers at union properties. More to the point, where a miner in a union mine could challenge a safety infraction without being fired, fear silences those who work for Massey.
Massey keeps on mining coal despite the flood of fines and citations by the simple device of contesting most of them. Federal officials say Massey contests more safety fines than any other coal mining company in the nation. By contesting the citations, Massey has been able to avoid falling into a “potential pattern of violation” category, a step that would have moved federal regulators closer to being able to shut down operations.
The backlog of contested violations has grown since the 2006 Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act boosted the number of inspectors, stiffened fines and toughened safety regulations. The resulting increase in contested citations has overloaded the federal review commission, which has a backlog of more than 16,600 contested cases.
“The hope and expectation was that operators would comply, rather than leave themselves vulnerable to the increased penalties. Instead, a lot of operators have opted to contest every citation, leading to the backlog at the commission,” said Judy Rivlin, associate general counsel of the United Mine Workers of America.
The backlog is not mere piled-up paperwork. Workers’ lives are at stake when violations continue uncorrected.
Like the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration has been understaffed, underfinanced and lacking in enforcement power.
“The backlog is an enormous problem,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor subcommittee on work force protections. “We need more resources for administrative law judges and solicitors at the Department of Labor to eliminate this problem as soon as possible.”
Blankenship, the CE sometimes arrives at his mining properties in a black helicopter, other times in a black Mercedes. Like many anti-union employers, he seeks to convey the image of a protective father. Last year he hosted a Fourth of July celebration with Ted Nugent as the headliner. After the explosion, he announced he is paying for the dead miners’ funerals. And he refers to his employees as “members,” much as Wal-Mart refers to its employees as “associates.”
Blankenship’s patina of graciousness may be wearing thin. The day after the explosion, he arrived at Upper Big Branch to announce the death toll to families gathered at the site. As he prepared to speak, anguished family members screamed at him for caring more about profits than about miners’ lives.
The home page on Massey Energy’s website declares: “We strive for sustainable excellence in safety. It is our top priority every day.”
But in an irate memo to his deep mine superintendents, Blankenship made it clear his one and only priority is not safety, but to “run coal” at any cost:
“If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e., build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that coal pays the bills.”
Back to Home
Canada, Mexico and the U.S.: One big economy
By Alfredo Peppard
It was Jeff Faux, author of The Global Class War, who turned on the lights for me: The idea that there is now a North American working class; one single economic entity, a single political entity, a new economically integrated international working class. In his book, Faux presents the most detailed analysis and criticism of NAFTA that I have yet read. The title says it all.
I have thought for years that the Mexican labor, which plays such a vital role in our economy, was part of the U.S. work force. Faux’s formulation based on the integration of the three economies deepens the analysis considerably. Because we are a unified workforce, we are also part of them. That is to say, not only is the repression and the indignities inflicted upon migrant labor in the U.S. our affair but also the repression and indignities heaped upon Mexican labor in Mexico.
We also need to defend our Canadian fellow workers in their struggle to maintain their social services in the face of enforced “free market solutions” and alignment with the American economic model. We need a labor environmental movement to stop the rape of North America in all three countries. But first let’s talk about the number one problem: Unemployment.
Unemployment, that killer of souls, is ratcheting upward in all three countries. Unemployment is the workers’ most deadly enemy. It destroys the economic foundations of his life. He can lose his half-paid-for car, his home, his family’s future.. So he has to put up with attacks on his humanity like urine tests, unpaid overtime – all the big and petty abuses that a worker must swallow to keep his job.
But the pundits tell us that a certain amount of unemployment is good for the economy. It certainly is if you’re an employer. You can then begin to run your company or companies in the way that is the most profitable for you, which is by fear. Fear of losing what little they have governs the workers’ every action. They must submit to speed-up conditions, lower and lower pay for longer and longer hours -- or end up unemployed, bankrupt, maybe divorced, and possibly homeless.
That is what the pundits mean when they say a certain amount of unemployment is good for the economy: it raises profit levels. And if you’re big enough and well enough dispersed through the economies of the three nations, say like Chiquita, or Ford, or W. R. Grace, you can exercise your ability to destroy people’s lives, rule them with fear while you despoil them of their valuable labor and lands at off-the-rack prices.
And you can do this only until simple arithmetic gets in the way The money to buy all the stuff that drives the consumer society is that which is paid out in wages. Unemployment goes up, wages go down, and the gross consumer dollar shrinks and is able to buy less of the products in the market, so they lay off more workers, close more plants, ruin more towns, destroy more marriages, and create more unemployment.
Now they can move plants, workers and commodities all over the North American continent in search of cheaper labor, less environmental protection, and lower taxes. However while the masters of the universe are doing all this and everyone up there is getting rich, it’s not working for the rest of us down here; the ship is taking on water faster than the pumps can handle it. You don’t have to be an economist to see that the ship of our economy is going down by the bow and it’s time to be thinking about lifeboats.
All the possible approaches have been tried over the years to avoid this outcome but here it is. The economies of all three countries are involved and the ruling elites of all three countries are reacting in the same way. They are all making us pay for the failure of their wonderful system. They are slashing our social services, paid for with our tax dollars, and giving those very same tax dollars to banks that are somehow too big to fail. Canada and the U.S. are engaged in a war in Afghanistan that can do no possible good for the citizens of either country. So instead of schools, medicine, education, and decent roads we get reports of how we’ve got them on the run and it will be over in just a few more months. Whatever happened to the “light at the end of the tunnel?”
In Canada the forests are going fast and the oil shale exploitation is laying waste to vast areas. And in Mexico it is business as usual; the anger of the lower classes is dealt with by naked force. In West Virginia the courts have ruled it is perfectly legal to remove mountain tops to extract coal. Even the mountains are not safe from contemporary global capitalism.
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It was Jeff Faux, author of The Global Class War, who turned on the lights for me: The idea that there is now a North American working class; one single economic entity, a single political entity, a new economically integrated international working class. In his book, Faux presents the most detailed analysis and criticism of NAFTA that I have yet read. The title says it all.
I have thought for years that the Mexican labor, which plays such a vital role in our economy, was part of the U.S. work force. Faux’s formulation based on the integration of the three economies deepens the analysis considerably. Because we are a unified workforce, we are also part of them. That is to say, not only is the repression and the indignities inflicted upon migrant labor in the U.S. our affair but also the repression and indignities heaped upon Mexican labor in Mexico.
We also need to defend our Canadian fellow workers in their struggle to maintain their social services in the face of enforced “free market solutions” and alignment with the American economic model. We need a labor environmental movement to stop the rape of North America in all three countries. But first let’s talk about the number one problem: Unemployment.
Unemployment, that killer of souls, is ratcheting upward in all three countries. Unemployment is the workers’ most deadly enemy. It destroys the economic foundations of his life. He can lose his half-paid-for car, his home, his family’s future.. So he has to put up with attacks on his humanity like urine tests, unpaid overtime – all the big and petty abuses that a worker must swallow to keep his job.
But the pundits tell us that a certain amount of unemployment is good for the economy. It certainly is if you’re an employer. You can then begin to run your company or companies in the way that is the most profitable for you, which is by fear. Fear of losing what little they have governs the workers’ every action. They must submit to speed-up conditions, lower and lower pay for longer and longer hours -- or end up unemployed, bankrupt, maybe divorced, and possibly homeless.
That is what the pundits mean when they say a certain amount of unemployment is good for the economy: it raises profit levels. And if you’re big enough and well enough dispersed through the economies of the three nations, say like Chiquita, or Ford, or W. R. Grace, you can exercise your ability to destroy people’s lives, rule them with fear while you despoil them of their valuable labor and lands at off-the-rack prices.
And you can do this only until simple arithmetic gets in the way The money to buy all the stuff that drives the consumer society is that which is paid out in wages. Unemployment goes up, wages go down, and the gross consumer dollar shrinks and is able to buy less of the products in the market, so they lay off more workers, close more plants, ruin more towns, destroy more marriages, and create more unemployment.
Now they can move plants, workers and commodities all over the North American continent in search of cheaper labor, less environmental protection, and lower taxes. However while the masters of the universe are doing all this and everyone up there is getting rich, it’s not working for the rest of us down here; the ship is taking on water faster than the pumps can handle it. You don’t have to be an economist to see that the ship of our economy is going down by the bow and it’s time to be thinking about lifeboats.
All the possible approaches have been tried over the years to avoid this outcome but here it is. The economies of all three countries are involved and the ruling elites of all three countries are reacting in the same way. They are all making us pay for the failure of their wonderful system. They are slashing our social services, paid for with our tax dollars, and giving those very same tax dollars to banks that are somehow too big to fail. Canada and the U.S. are engaged in a war in Afghanistan that can do no possible good for the citizens of either country. So instead of schools, medicine, education, and decent roads we get reports of how we’ve got them on the run and it will be over in just a few more months. Whatever happened to the “light at the end of the tunnel?”
In Canada the forests are going fast and the oil shale exploitation is laying waste to vast areas. And in Mexico it is business as usual; the anger of the lower classes is dealt with by naked force. In West Virginia the courts have ruled it is perfectly legal to remove mountain tops to extract coal. Even the mountains are not safe from contemporary global capitalism.
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A message from 8,000 throats
The message that roared from more than 8,000 throats was simple enough for the most obtuse member of Congress to understand:
“Comprehensive immigration reform now!”
The occasion was the spirited, banner-bedecked April 10 rally in Seattle’s Occidental Park, organized by the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition (WIRC), an umbrella group of 60 labor, faith, business, community and student organizations.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans was represented with a contingent and its colorful banner.
The crowd was swelled by several thousand who arrived in 75 chartered buses from Walla Walla, Mattawa, Kennewick, Yakima, Vancouver, Bellingham and Mount Vernon.
The Seattle rally was one of the largest and most diverse of events delivering the same message on the same day in several cities. More than a thousand Asian Pacific Islander Americans took part, together with Latinos and Africans, as well as substantial numbers of workers wearing their union T-shirts and jackets.
The campaign was given a further boost with demonstrations on Saturday, May 1.
The coalition is demanding enactment of legislation that first legalizes millions of undocumented immigrants, and then creates a clear system for workers to enter the U.S. with full labor protections.
“Patience is wearing thin for families torn apart by raids and deportations,” Pramila Jaypal, executive director of OneAmerica, told the crowd. “Millions who have tried to apply legally for family members to join them here wait – cruelly – for decades.
“Workers can no longer tolerate abusive employers who manipulate them because of their undocumented status, and good employers can no longer wait for workers to fill the tough jobs they have open. American workers should not be subjected to a two-tiered wage system that doesn’t serve anyone,” Jaypal said.
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“Comprehensive immigration reform now!”
The occasion was the spirited, banner-bedecked April 10 rally in Seattle’s Occidental Park, organized by the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition (WIRC), an umbrella group of 60 labor, faith, business, community and student organizations.
The Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans was represented with a contingent and its colorful banner.
The crowd was swelled by several thousand who arrived in 75 chartered buses from Walla Walla, Mattawa, Kennewick, Yakima, Vancouver, Bellingham and Mount Vernon.
The Seattle rally was one of the largest and most diverse of events delivering the same message on the same day in several cities. More than a thousand Asian Pacific Islander Americans took part, together with Latinos and Africans, as well as substantial numbers of workers wearing their union T-shirts and jackets.
The campaign was given a further boost with demonstrations on Saturday, May 1.
The coalition is demanding enactment of legislation that first legalizes millions of undocumented immigrants, and then creates a clear system for workers to enter the U.S. with full labor protections.
“Patience is wearing thin for families torn apart by raids and deportations,” Pramila Jaypal, executive director of OneAmerica, told the crowd. “Millions who have tried to apply legally for family members to join them here wait – cruelly – for decades.
“Workers can no longer tolerate abusive employers who manipulate them because of their undocumented status, and good employers can no longer wait for workers to fill the tough jobs they have open. American workers should not be subjected to a two-tiered wage system that doesn’t serve anyone,” Jaypal said.
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New health law means a healthier state
What will the new health care law mean here in Washington State?
The new benefits and protections for residents of our state are spelled out in a three-page Special Report issued April 3 by the Democratic Policy Committee. Space limitations permit only the following brief summary. For a copy of the full report, contact us at editor@psara.org or by phone a (206) 448-9646.
The new legislation will:
• Narrow and within a few years close the “doughnut hole” and improve Medicare benefits for 897,000 Washington seniors.
• Reduce Medicare premiums for the 692,000 Washington seniors who are not enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. These seniors will no longer subsidize the private insurance plans.
• Ensure affordable coverage options for 811,000 uninsured Washingtonians and for 359,000 who purchase health insurance through the individual market.
• Prohibit insurance companies from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for the state’s 1.6 million children, starting this year.
• Provide tax credits for up to 102,719 of our state’s small businesses to help them afford coverage for their employees.
• Provide access to Medicaid for 411,076 newly-eligible Washingtonians and provide $3.9 billion in federal funding for the cost of their coverage, materially easing the state’s budget crisis.
•Provide more funding for the state’s 232 Community Health Centers, strengthening this ultimate safety net for uninsured men, women and children.
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The new benefits and protections for residents of our state are spelled out in a three-page Special Report issued April 3 by the Democratic Policy Committee. Space limitations permit only the following brief summary. For a copy of the full report, contact us at editor@psara.org or by phone a (206) 448-9646.
The new legislation will:
• Narrow and within a few years close the “doughnut hole” and improve Medicare benefits for 897,000 Washington seniors.
• Reduce Medicare premiums for the 692,000 Washington seniors who are not enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. These seniors will no longer subsidize the private insurance plans.
• Ensure affordable coverage options for 811,000 uninsured Washingtonians and for 359,000 who purchase health insurance through the individual market.
• Prohibit insurance companies from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for the state’s 1.6 million children, starting this year.
• Provide tax credits for up to 102,719 of our state’s small businesses to help them afford coverage for their employees.
• Provide access to Medicaid for 411,076 newly-eligible Washingtonians and provide $3.9 billion in federal funding for the cost of their coverage, materially easing the state’s budget crisis.
•Provide more funding for the state’s 232 Community Health Centers, strengthening this ultimate safety net for uninsured men, women and children.
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Help paying for hearing aids
The New Hampshire Alliance celebrated yesterday when the NH Senate voted to require insurance companies to provide $1,500 coverage over five years for hearing aids, fitting, and adjustment services.
New Hampshire Alliance members worked hard placing calls, writing letters, and now celebrate this big win for retirees, individuals with hearing loss, and their families.
"A good hearing aid can cost as much as $6,000," said Charlie Balban, NH Alliance President. "Retirees use them more than anyone else, but most retirees live on fixed incomes so it's hard for them to afford an effective hearing aid. This bill will help retirees and also help people still in the workforce."
The bill was endorsed by the Commission on Deafness and Hearing Loss, AFL-CIO, Granite State Independent Living, and the NH Alliance, and will next go to the governor's desk.
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Robbing each working woman of $2 million
By Edie Koch
Although the global recession has had serious impact on working men and women alike, women in the United States and throughout the world have suffered most because of long-standing discrimination.
At first, the recession was felt in work done primarily by men, such as finance, manufacturing and construction. Now, however, the impact has shifted to other areas of work, including service work, where women generally are dominant. Of course, when men lose their jobs, women have to support their families. That is a very real burden for women. Although they do essentially the same work as men, or the equivalent of it, women in all countries earn substantially less than men, typically 30% to 40% less. In the United States, women average only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
The pay gap exists, in part, because we still find many more women than men taking up low paying jobs either because this is the only type of job made available or because they need to find employment that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. This is usually not the case for men.
Not only in the U.S. but everywhere, we need equal treatment for working women. We need to pay women the same, and treat them the same, as men doing comparable work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has never delivered on its promise to guarantee women equal treatment on the job. The long-stalled Paycheck Fairness Act should be enacted to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that have made it easy for employers to discriminate against women in pay and other work issues.
The New Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates that if US women were granted equal pay, they could each earn as much as $2 million more over the whole of their working lives. It’s estimated as well that equal pay would reduce the number of families living in poverty by as much as half.
In addition to paycheck fairness, the CAP report called for worldwide updating of basic labor standards “to recognize that most workers have family responsibilities and need predictable and flexible work schedules, family and medical leaves and paid sick days.” Such standards would ensure that women “who stay employed to support their families” won’t end up unemployed because of “family-work conflicts.”
A recent poll cited in the CAP report showed that “a large majority of Americans support new, more family-friendly workplace policies.” Eight-five percent said, “Businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.” Businesses that fail to adapt will be furthering the mistreatment of working women that’s gone virtually unchecked for far too many years. No matter what the recession or its end brings, we will not have a truly healthy economy until working women are guaranteed their full rights. Amen to that!
Although the global recession has had serious impact on working men and women alike, women in the United States and throughout the world have suffered most because of long-standing discrimination.
At first, the recession was felt in work done primarily by men, such as finance, manufacturing and construction. Now, however, the impact has shifted to other areas of work, including service work, where women generally are dominant. Of course, when men lose their jobs, women have to support their families. That is a very real burden for women. Although they do essentially the same work as men, or the equivalent of it, women in all countries earn substantially less than men, typically 30% to 40% less. In the United States, women average only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
The pay gap exists, in part, because we still find many more women than men taking up low paying jobs either because this is the only type of job made available or because they need to find employment that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities. This is usually not the case for men.
Not only in the U.S. but everywhere, we need equal treatment for working women. We need to pay women the same, and treat them the same, as men doing comparable work. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 has never delivered on its promise to guarantee women equal treatment on the job. The long-stalled Paycheck Fairness Act should be enacted to close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that have made it easy for employers to discriminate against women in pay and other work issues.
The New Center for American Progress (CAP) estimates that if US women were granted equal pay, they could each earn as much as $2 million more over the whole of their working lives. It’s estimated as well that equal pay would reduce the number of families living in poverty by as much as half.
In addition to paycheck fairness, the CAP report called for worldwide updating of basic labor standards “to recognize that most workers have family responsibilities and need predictable and flexible work schedules, family and medical leaves and paid sick days.” Such standards would ensure that women “who stay employed to support their families” won’t end up unemployed because of “family-work conflicts.”
A recent poll cited in the CAP report showed that “a large majority of Americans support new, more family-friendly workplace policies.” Eight-five percent said, “Businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.” Businesses that fail to adapt will be furthering the mistreatment of working women that’s gone virtually unchecked for far too many years. No matter what the recession or its end brings, we will not have a truly healthy economy until working women are guaranteed their full rights. Amen to that!
Stand up for that working Mom!
Three unions representing 25,000 Puget Sound grocery workers – including that cheerful working Mom at your nearby supermarket -- are rejecting employer takeaways and standing firm for “an honest wage every day, reliable hours every week, and a future we can all depend on.”
That was the word from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 after the employers came to the bargaining table April 13 proposing higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for the union-negotiated health plan.
The union is calling for a new contract that:
• Provides sick leave so workers can take a day off with pay when they are sick.
• Protects health plan benefits
• Secures the pension “so that it will be there when we retire.”
• Increases pay a little more an hour and secures enough hours so that workers can make ends meet.
• Provides grocery store workers with more dependable, regular schedules.
We hope you’ll tell that working Mom that you support her all the way!
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That was the word from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 after the employers came to the bargaining table April 13 proposing higher deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for the union-negotiated health plan.
The union is calling for a new contract that:
• Provides sick leave so workers can take a day off with pay when they are sick.
• Protects health plan benefits
• Secures the pension “so that it will be there when we retire.”
• Increases pay a little more an hour and secures enough hours so that workers can make ends meet.
• Provides grocery store workers with more dependable, regular schedules.
We hope you’ll tell that working Mom that you support her all the way!
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