February 5, 2009

• Thousands Turn Out To Urge Passage of Employee Free Choice Act
• Union Membership Rises for Second Straight Year
• House-Passed Recovery Act Is Important First Step
• Key Healthcare Provisions of House Recovery Act
• Write Your Senator, Wear Blue on Feb. 10, AFT Unity Day!
• White House To Push for Public Plan in Healthcare Reform
• Obama Reverses Bush Anti-Worker Executive Orders
• Free Shipping, Great Prices at Online Union Bookstore
• Quote of Note: Business on House Recovery Bill
• Web Site of the Week: www.webmd.com/fda

THOUSANDS TURN OUT TO URGE PASSAGE OF EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT
Despite the bone-chilling cold, thousands of union members—including a sizeable AFT contingent—rallied at the U.S. Capitol Feb. 4, delivering more than 1.5 million signatures supporting passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The bill is vital to restoring the freedom to form unions, bargain, and expand democracy and economic opportunity to millions more American workers. The measure offers private sector workers the option of choosing union representation by signing a card or through a secret ballot election. The bill also toughens penalties for employers who coerce workers attempting to organize and sets a realistic timetable for negotiating a first contract. In a drive to counter the millions of dollars corporate America is spending to defeat the legislation, American Rights at Work, a national workers' advocacy group, launched a new ad campaign Feb. 2 supporting EFCA. The broadcast and print ads, set to launch Feb. 7, will push back against the misleading corporate ad campaign. Surveys conducted for the AFL-CIO by the nationally recognized polling firm Hart/Garin/Yang show that nearly 60 million workers not yet organized would join a union if there was no fear of employer retaliation and intimidation. The Employee Free Choice Act passed the House in 2007 but did not survive a Republican filibuster in the Senate. With Democrats expanding their majority in the Senate, union leaders say they are close to securing the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Businesses are mobilizing fierce opposition.

UNION MEMBERSHIP RISES FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR
Union membership jumped to 12.4 percent of the nation's work force last year, amid widespread job losses and credit woes in a troubled economy. The ranks of organized labor rose by 428,000 workers in 2008, the biggest annual gain since the government began compiling such data in 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Feb. 2. It's the second year in a row that unions have added to their ranks. Membership rose by 311,000 members in 2007, to account for 12.1 percent of workers. Unions have moved aggressively to bolster organizing efforts in recent years, a move that apparently offset the loss of 2.6 million jobs from payrolls in 2008. Public sector unions accounted for most of the increase last year. The union membership rate for government workers rose to 36.8 percent from 35.9 percent in 2007. The AFT led nearly all unions, adding more than 56,000 members last year. In the private sector, membership remained steady as union ranks inched up to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in 2007. Unions look to an even greater resurgence in the coming years if Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act.

HOUSE-PASSED RECOVERY ACT IS IMPORTANT FIRST STEP
By a 244-188 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, on Jan. 28. AFT president Randi Weingarten called the vote a "critical first step toward revitalizing our economy." A Jan. 27 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that the House version of the bill would have a "noticeable impact on economic growth and employment in the next few years" because much of the mandatory spending for Medicaid and other programs is likely to occur in the next 19 to 20 months. Weingarten urged the Senate to complete its work quickly so a final bill can be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature. "This package will give states the lifeline they need to avoid draconian cuts to education and other essential services," she added. "The bill recognizes that helping states make strategic investments in education and other vital services is key to invigorating our economy and climbing out of this recession." Earlier this month, the AFT launched a national campaign, "Fight for America's Future: It's Dollars and Sense," to help AFT leaders and members take the message of making smart investments in education, healthcare and other essential services to Congress, statehouses, school boards and city halls. As part of the campaign, AFT members have sent more than 8,000 letters to Congress detailing the difficulties of coping with severe cuts and urging the legislators to quickly approve the federal recovery package. In spite of a determined outreach effort by President Obama, the bill did not garner a single Republican vote. Approval of the House bill followed approval Jan. 27 of similar legislation (S. 1) by the Senate Finance Committee by a 14-to-9 vote. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe was the only Republican to vote for the measure. A full Senate vote is expected midmonth.

KEY HEALTHCARE PROVISIONS OF HOUSE RECOVERY ACT

• Provides $20 billion to accelerate adoption of health information technology (HIT) systems by doctors and hospitals, including significant financial incentives through Medicare and Medicaid.
• Gives the federal government a leadership role in developing HIT standards by 2010 to allow for nationwide electronic exchange.
  Strengthens federal privacy and security laws to protect personally identifiable health information from misuse as the healthcare sector increases the use of HIT.
• Provides $87 billion in additional federal Medicaid matching funds to states over a two-year period. Medicaid is the primary payer of nursing home costs.
• Helps maintain health coverage for workers laid off in the last 12 months by providing a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums.
• Gives states the temporary option of offering coverage to unemployed workers through their Medicaid programs, with the federal government matching 100 percent of the costs of benefits and administration.
• Allows COBRA-eligible workers who are 55 or older, or have worked for an employer for 10 years or more, to extend their COBRA coverage, at their own expense until they become Medicare-eligible at age 65 or secure coverage through a subsequent employer.
• Provides $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research to help patients and doctors determine the effectiveness of different medical treatments.
• Provides $600 million for the training of doctors, dentists and nurses to address the shortage of primary care providers.

WRITE YOUR SENATOR, WEAR BLUE ON AFT UNITY DAY!
As a coalition of conservative senators and budget hawks seeks to cut as much as $200 billion from the House-passed recovery package, more than 40 AFT leaders from 20-plus targeted states met with U.S. senators and staff Feb. 4 in Washington, D.C. The leaders were pushing a number of key issues addressed in the House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including significant investment in education; increased funding for Medicaid to reduce some of the program's growing burden on state budgets; ample funding for school construction and modernization; and opposition to efforts to reduce the bill's support for Pell Grants and other higher education programs. Passage of the recovery act is the current top priority of the AFT's "Fight for America's Future: It's Dollars and Sense" campaign. In conjunction with the meetings, the AFT also sent a letter to the full Senate urging support for key parts of the bill and reiterating many of the same points that the AFT leaders were making in their visits with senators and their staffs. Participate now by writing your senators and urging them to reject any amendments to eliminate or reduce funding for these important priorities. Action on Capitol Hill is vital, but it is only the start. We need to build on this momentum by showing policymakers at every level how critical it is to support wise public investments that can revitalize America and lay the groundwork for long-term, sustainable growth. Help us make our case to communities across America; participate in AFT's Unity Day on Feb. 10 by wearing blue.

WHITE HOUSE TO PUSH FOR PUBLIC PLAN IN HEALTHCARE REFORM
President Obama supports including a public plan option in healthcare reform legislation, holding that the public should be given a choice between public and private health plan coverage options, Jeanne Lambrew, deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said Feb. 2. Under such a public plan, the federal government would determine healthcare benefits and provide financing to private health plans to deliver the actual coverage. This is similar to the way Medicare now operates. Lambrew's statement followed a similar statement Jan. 29 by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). That same day, Democratic congressional staff said that a public plan option would be a crucial component of healthcare reform legislation because it would help drive down overall healthcare costs and provide coverage options for certain populations that are not currently being well served by private health plans. The aides said a public plan option would have lower administrative costs, and these lower costs would be felt throughout the healthcare system, helping to lower healthcare premiums. The Democrats' drive for a public plan options is likely to run into strong opposition from private insurers and congressional Republicans. Lambrew said the worsening economy increases the need for healthcare reform and that the White House views the economic stimulus bills making their way through Congress (S. 1. H.R. 1) as a down payment on such reform.

OBAMA REVERSES BUSH ANTI-WORKER EXECUTIVE ORDERS
On Jan. 30, President Obama reversed three Bush-era anti-worker executive orders. In a White House ceremony Jan. 30, attended by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, AFT president Randi Weingarten and other union leaders, Obama signed three executive orders reversing a series of orders made by President Bush, which govern the way federal contractors deal with unionized workers.

The three new executive orders:

• Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
• Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers who are deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Before signing the orders, Obama said: "We cannot have a strong middle class without strong labor unions. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests."

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QUOTE OF NOTE: Business on House Recovery Bill
"The economic recovery package legislation being voted on today by the House will help large employers purchase better value in healthcare through a more effective delivery system. ...With more than $2.1 trillion spent annually on healthcare, this legislation's investment in expanded use of health-information technology and comparative effectiveness research will help bring more measurement and accountability to healthcare, promote patient safety and quality, and reduce wasteful and inefficient care that harms millions every year."

National Business Group on Health
(Representing 300 large employers)
Jan. 28, 2009

WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: www.webmd.com/fda
This Web site features U.S. Food and Drug Administration Consumer Updates, information on the safety of FDA-regulated products, and links to report problems with these products directly to the FDA.

Contributors and sources: Bill Cunningham, New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, BNA Healthcare Daily Report, CQ Today, FDA Older Women's Health eUpdate, AFL-CIO Now, Alliance for Retired Americans Friday Alert, Kaiser Health Policy Report. Frank Stella, editor; Laura Baker, copy editor; Paula Dutko, design