Labor & Employment Law

Fighting for Real Reform on Capitol Hill and Across the Country

By Seth Michaels

Today and tomorrow, more than 100 union leaders and activists from around the nation are visiting their senators and representatives to let them know they urgently need to pass health care reform?the right way. 

The exact shape of the Senate’s bill is in flux right now, and the union leaders are pressing members of Congress on three key issues:

? Inclusion of a public health insurance option;

? Making sure employers do their part in providing health care for employees; and

? Stopping a new tax on working family health benefits. 

Union activists are also bringing thousands of handwritten letters to members of Congress to let them know their constituents want reform and are worried about a tax on benefits. 

Last night on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told host Ed Schultz that millions of union members have been fighting for?and expect?real reform: 

We always know we have to fight for what’s right for not only workers in this country but for all Americans. And we are geared up and ready for this fight. We’ve made it very, very clear that we believe the strongest health care bill is one that has a public option, one that makes sure employers pay their fair share, and one that doesn’t tax workers. 

We’re doing everything we can to impress upon Congress and the president this is what constituents and members are saying in our organization?strong public option. Make no doubt about it, we’re very clear on this, and we’re going to fight for what we think is right and for the strongest points in that bill. 

A tax on health benefits could have a tough impact on millions of workers. As an example, federal employees who are part of the largest federal health care plan could see a benefits tax of more than $1,500 a year over the next ten years, a new report shows. 

William Burris, president of the Postal Workers (APWU), says a benefits tax is the wrong way to pay for health care: 

The excise tax will in fact raise costs and reduce coverage. We need health care reform now more than ever, but federal and postal employees and middle class Americans across the country should not be asked to shoulder the burden of paying for it. The Senate should find other solutions?such as those offered in the House version of the health reform bill?to pay for the reform that Americans deserve.

Here’s more news from the fight for health care reform: 

• In the Billings Gazette,  Jim McGarvey, executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO, looks at ways to improve the Senate’s health care bill.
• The Alliance for Retired Americans is launching a new TV ad in Maine on the ways health care reform will benefit seniors.
• An amendment that would have severely limited women’s access to reproductive health care was defeated yesterday in the Senate.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 09, 2009 (boomark / email).