October 27, 2006
DEFINITY MEANS STRIKE!
This article sounds like it was written about Definity insurance. I pulled out some of the high points you can download the entire article and see for yourself! So called “defined contribution plans” are not health care plans and Local Lodge 774 wants no part of Definity!
DEFINITY MEANS STRIKE!
Testimony of Gail Shearer
Director, Health Policy Analysis
Washington Office
CONSUMERS UNION
Before the Joint Economic Committee
On
Impact of “Consumer-Driven” Health Care on Consumers
February 25, 2004
One way to reduce the employer premiums for health insurance, and to make payments more predictable, is to switch to a “defined contribution” approach to health insurance, similar to the shift in recent decades from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions.
Defining features of so-called “consumer-driven health care” plans tend to be high deductible policies (e.g., $5,000), combined with a contribution by the employer to a health care savings account, at a level that leaves the consumer exposed to some out-of pocket costs before the high-deductible is met.
For example, the employer might provide $2,000 toward a family’s health reimbursement account, and offer a deductible of $5,000. (Often, the employer provides additional access to information about health care choices, such as information about managing certain diseases.) “Consumer-driven” implies that consumers have a full range of choices, and are in the driver’s seat calling the shots.
The problem with this is that too many consumers are not in control of their health care out of-pocket costs or health coverage. An employee with a seriously, chronically ill child, for example, will not be able to accumulate a nest egg in a health reimbursement account, and will face high out-of-pocket costs each year.
An employee with existing health conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes will face very limited choices in the individual marketplace if his employer decides to “cash out” its health insurance plan and send employees into the individual market for coverage. more on this story
October 26, 2006
Corporations know the price of judges, legislators, and public officials as certainly as an American knows the price of pork and mutton.
--Eugene Debs; American socialist
Taken from Big Labor.com
Quote sources:
Great Labor Quotations: Sourcebook and Reader, by Peter Bollen
The Great Quotations, by George Seldes
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Members of Local 639 in Wichita, KS voted by a 56 percent margin this week to ratify an improved contract offer from Bombardier Aerospace, ending a 22-day strike over pay, pensions and health care benefits.
The new 3-year accord, reached after a 36-hour bargaining session and with help from federal mediators, boosts pay by 11 percent over the life of the agreement and places caps on employee health care premiums. The contract also includes an increase in pensions and a $1,500 signing bonus.
"The substantial improvements in this latest contract offer are a direct result of the efforts of the members who held firm on the picket line and demanded terms that reflected Bombardier's success over the past several years," said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez.
The workers at Bombardier, who build Learjet aircraft, accepted a wage freeze and other concessions in 2002 in exchange for a pledge to keep the Learjet production line in Wichita and a promise to restore cuts when business improved.
"This settlement is a testament not only to the solidarity of IAM members in Wichita, but to the basic value of the collective bargaining process," said IP Tom Buffenbarger, who traveled to Wichita with GST Warren Mart to walk picket lines with members of Local 639. "The vast majority of all contracts are settled without a strike, but this union is fully prepared to support members who decide a strike is necessary to win a fair contract."
Local 639 members voted 80 percent to strike Bombardier after rejecting an initial offer from the company that allowed for unlimited increases in health care costs. It was the first strike by IAM members at Bombardier's Wichita facility.
"I want to also thank our hard-working negotiating committee, members of the community and the federal mediators for their help in resolving this dispute," said Aerospace Coordinator Ron Eldridge. "But in the end, it was the members themselves who won a better contract for themselves and their fellow employees."
Delegates at the Ohio State Council of Machinists meeting held in Columbus over the weekend heard words of hope and appreciation from democratic gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Representative Ted Strickland (pictured at left).
Strickland, who has a long history of standing up for union members and their families, thanked the group for their support of his effort to take back the Ohio governorship from a party who seems at war with the working men and women of this country.
Charles Brown was also in attendance and spoke on behalf of his brother, U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown. Brown, running against a two-term GOP Senator, is a long-time fighter against NAFTA and similar trade agreements. In fact, he has one of the strongest fair-trade records in Congress.
IP Tom Buffenbarger, GST Warren Mart and Eastern GVP Lynn Tucker were there to reaffirm the IAM’s support for both Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown and to reiterate the importance of getting our message out, especially now in the final weeks before the election.
“This is it,” said IP Buffenbarger. “We have opportunities across this country that we haven’t seen in years. It’s up to us to seize the moment to ensure victory at the polls on November 7. Not just for us, but for our children and grandchildren… for all working men and women and their families. It’s time to take back Congress!”
For more information about candidates in your area and voter registration information, go to the “Who’s Got the JUICE” section of www.goiam.org.
About170,000 Wal-Mart employees in Pennsylvania have been awarded $78.47 million after a state court jury ruled the corporate giant failed to compensate them for off-the-clock work and missed breaks.
Damages for the class action suit filed on behalf of all current and former hourly Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania since March 19, 1998, included nearly $2.5 million for off-the-clock work and $76 million for lost breaks.
The employees are also considering asking the judge to approve an additional $62 million in liquidated damages because Wal-Mart acted willfully and in bad faith.
The AFL-CIO filed a protest with the International Labor Organization (ILO), a branch of the United Nations, over the National Labor Relations Board’s recent rulings in Oakwood Healthcare Inc. and two other cases that collectively have come to be known as the “Kentucky River” cases.
The complaint, filed with the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association, asserts that the Bush-appointed majority on the NLRB set out “a new, expanded interpretation” of the definition of supervisor, opening the door for up to 8 million workers, including nurses, building trades workers, newspaper and television employees and others, to be barred from legal protection to join unions.
“Through these decisions, the Bush administration has stripped millions of America’s working people of a fundamental human right recognized all over the globe – the freedom to bargain collectively and have a voice on the job,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
The AFL-CIO, in its announcement of the filing of the complaint, stated that “although the ILO committee does not have enforcement power to change national labor laws, the AFL-CIO asked the body to add its ‘authoritative voice and moral weight in the international community’ to form a movement for legislation to restore the traditional, more balanced test for supervisory status, limiting it to genuine supervisors and managers.”
The complaint also asks the ILO to send a delegation to the United States to investigate the effects of the NLRB’s decision.
More than 600 leading U.S. economists are urging Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 an hour for nearly a decade.
The economists, including five Nobel Prize winners, signed a policy statement from the Economic Policy Institute calling for a “modest” increase in the minimum wage.
The economists said they believe the proposed phased-in increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 in the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2005 “falls well within the range of options where the benefits to the labor market, workers, and the overall economy would be positive.”
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have already raised their minimum wage above the federal level. With several other states considering similar measures, the statement also endorses increases in the state minimum wage in the range of $1.00 to $2.50 an hour, while simultaneously indexing to protect against inflation.
Earlier this year, House Republicans blocked an increase in the federal minimum wage when they were unable to attach yet another tax break for the country’s wealthiest families.
More than 200 men and women from District 837 in St. Louis, MO showed up at the Machinists Hall to celebrate 50 (pictured left) and 55 (pictured below) years of continuous service with the IAM. Their pride radiated throughout the special banquet as they met up with old friends, made a few new ones, and reminisced about old times.
These special IAM members set the pace in the aerospace industry for over a half a century. Many worked on the Mercury Space Program that put the first US man in space.
Others talked about the Mac-built Voodoo, Demon, Phantom, Eagle, and Hornet fighter planes that were used to protect our nation in time of war. The fighters, spaceships, and weapons built by these Machinists were all cutting-edge technology in their time.
"On behalf of the District and Local Lodge staff, our members, and a grateful nation, I want to thank you for your service," said District President Rick Smith. "If it was not for the sacrifices you made in the strikes of the 1960's, 1975, and 1996, we would not be in the position we are today. When called upon to serve your Union, you stood tall, shoulder to shoulder, and did what needed to be done.
Our lives, our Union, our families, and our nation are better off because of you.”
Members of Local 2418 in Miramichi, New Brunswick have ratified a new collective agreement with Lounsbury Limited.
The new three-year agreement, ratified by a margin of 90 percent, provides a total wage increase of six percent.
The agreement also includes general wage lifts of 35 cents per hour for technicians and 50 cents per hour over the current wage scale for Shuttle Bus drivers and lot attendants. Parts department workers will maintain their negotiated bonus system. Language was also improved regarding gain time and Labour-Management Joint Health and Safety Committee meetings.
The 20 members of Local 2418 employed by Lounsbury consist of automotive mechanics, technicians, service advisors, drivers, lot attendants and stores clerks. More than 40 members of LL 2418 are employed in auto sales and services at dealerships in the Bathurst-Miramichi area.
October 10, 2006
We seem to be able to mobilize the resources of our country for Desert Storm and bailing out the savings and loans, but we haven’t been doing it for our unemployed workers.
--John N. Sturdivant; President, American Federation of Government Employees
Taken from Big Labor.com
Quote sources:
Great Labor Quotations: Sourcebook and Reader, by Peter Bollen
The Great Quotations, by George Seldes
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
The IAM Women’s Department has named Mary A. Sansom of Air Transport Local 1833 in Bloomington, MN as U.S. Sister of the Month for October 2006. Sister Sansom, an IAM member for 32 years, has been active in her union for most of that time, and Lodge Recording Secretary for the last five years. Kathryn McCarthy is the Sister of the Month for Canada, who is chosen quarterly.
An Equipment Service Employee (ESE) at Northwest Airlines, Sansom became involved in the union to fight discrimination, harassment, injustice and employer intimidation. Sansom draws strength from the members she’s been able to help. “That’s why I stay involved,” says Sansom.
Sister Sansom was the first woman to chair the Labor Division of the National Safety Council and the second woman to receive their highest safety recognition award, the Distinguished Service to Safety Award. She’s served as Delegate to Grand Lodge Conventions, Democratic National Conventions, state labor conventions and District 143 Conventions.
The IAM “Sister of the Month” is an effort to motivate women to become more involved in their union by recognizing their hard work and dedication. If you’d like to nominate someone, download the nomination form, and submit it to the IAM Women’s Department.
Manufacturing, Mining and Construction
Striking workers at Bombardier's Kan. aerospace plant receive last paycheck The Associated Press, October 8, 2006 Sunday
Arbitrations and Legal Developments
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Health Benefits, Workers Compensation and Safety & Health
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Organizing, Bargaining Rights and Union-busting
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Jobs, the Economy and Politics
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Global Labor Movement
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