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Labor Radio for 06/28/10 Newscast

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Workers Independent News Labor Radio
Internet Radio Program 06/28/10
Producers: Doug Cunningham & Jesse Russell

Labor Radio Rundown:

1) WIN Newscast

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Workers Independent News Labor Radio
Internet Radio Program 06/25/10
Producers: Doug Cunningham & Jesse Russell

Labor Radio Rundown:

1) WIN Newscast

2) As the G-20 summit starts in Toronto UNITE-HERE hotel workers have hit the picket lines as they try to reach new contacts with 32 hotels. WIN's Doug Cunningham speaks with UNITE-HERE Local 75' s J.J. Fueser abut the Toronto action and the struggle to transform hotel and hospitality industry jobs into solid full-time middle class jobs with good wages and benefits.

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Painters in Madison, Wisconsin have been walking the picket lines this week. Jesse Russell reports.

The workers are on an unfair labor practice strike against contractors that handle big projects in the capitol city. Klein Dickert is business manager for IUPAT Local 802 and he says one of the main sticking points in negotiations has been the cost of health insurance.

[Dickert]: Because insurance prices are going up so much – our insurance cost went up 18 percent last year –that’s what is hurting us so much in these negotiations, the cost of healthcare.

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Today is the last unpaid furlough day for California state workers, but it doesn’t come with a sense of relief. Governor Arnold Schawarzenegger said in a memo released Wednesday that if the state legislature can’t reach a budget agreement he may order pay to be cut down to minimum wage. However, the man responsible for doling out paychecks, Controller John Chiang, said he wouldn’t respect the Governor’s order adding that even if he did the state’s computer system was incapable of swiftly responding to such a demand.

By Doug Cunningham

UNITE-HERE hotel workers in Toronto are on the picket line as the G-20 economic conference gets underway there. Union spokesperson J.J. Fueser says the picket line at the Novatel Toronto Center went up just outside the main security cordon of the G-20.

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By Doug Cunningham

Republicans are blocking and filibustering a jobs bill in the U.S. Senate that would send aid to states to help avert big layoffs of public workers. AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says when workers in both the private and public sectors lose their jobs as a result of what he says is a reckless filibuster and obstructionist actions, Republicans will be to blame for it. And McEntee says this increased unemployment will lead to even larger deficits.

Economic Report:

What is the ripple effect of the oil spill? For one, you can’t get Oysters at Red Lobster anymore. AmeriPure Oysters is the 660 location strong supplier for the sea food restaurant chain and last week that company shuttered its plant due to low supplies. The 15-year-old business announced it is forced to close indefinitely due to the poisoning of oyster beds due to the BP Oil Spill.

At midnight Tuesday, 600 tree trimmers walked off the job due to an inability to reach a contract agreement with the five companies that subcontract for DTE Energy. The workers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 17. The union says the stalemate is over paid vacations and holidays.

Israelis will have a difficult time getting goods in and out of Sweden over the next week. Jesse Russell reports:

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By Doug Cunningham

On Wednesday four unions – UFCW, teamsters, SEIU and longshoremen - used the annual shareholders meeting of the national drugstore chain Rite-Aid to call on the company to bargain in good faith with its workers to reach new fair contracts.
Wendell Young , President of UFCW Local 1776 in Pennsylvania, says unions are not making unreasonable demands. He says this is their message to Rite-Aid.

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Workers Independent News Labor Radio
Internet Radio Program 06/23/10
Producers: Doug Cunningham & Jesse Russell

Labor Radio Rundown:

1) WIN Newscast

2) Following a 3-day strike at various American Red Cross locations around the country, workers took their message of mismanagement at the blood supplier to Washington, D.C. WIN's Jesse Russell reports on the protest on the heels of a multi-million dollar fine against the Red Cross for blood safety violations.

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The Obama administration is reportedly close to extending family and medical leave rights to same-sex partners. Jesse Russell has more.

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Southern New York State could be facing a grocery workers strike. Sixteen thousand workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 are holding strike authorization meetings today. Contracts for the workers expire at the end of the week. The sticking points between the two sides include healthcare benefits, wages, and pensions. The union represents workers at Stop and Shop, King Kullen, and Pathmark supermarkets. A strike would impact more than 150 supermarkets in the region.

Former SEIU President Andy Stern has joined the corporate board of SIGA technologies. The pharmaceutical company’s focus in on drugs to combat bio-warfare pathogens. Stern resigned from SEIU in April. As president of the union he advocated developing partnerships with employers as a tactic to advance workers. Siga’s CEO says Stern’s understanding of how the federal government works will complement the skill sets of the corporation’s board.

By Doug Cunningham

As part of the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit today a labor-community coalition will march for full and fair employment. The march will call for money for jobs, not for banks. Thousands of people are expected. UAW President Bob King and Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams will be among the labor leaders at the march.

By Doug Cunningham

United Steel Workers Vice-President Gary Beevers says whether it’s at the bargaining table or in the halls of Congress the union is determine to work hard to improve oil refinery safety. Beevers says stronger safety practices need to be enforced through collective bargaining contracts and OSHA regulations need to have more teeth with higher fines for safety violations while protecting whistle-blowing workers.

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Health insurance companies should not use the new heath care reform law as an “opportunity to enact unjustifiable rate increases,” President Obama warned today at a White House ceremony marking the 90-day anniversary of signing the landmark bill, which he termed “a true patient’s bill of rights.”

The warning came a day after a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed that health insurers are raising prices by an average of 20 percent for working-age adults who are not covered on the job and who buy their own policies.

At the ceremony attended by health care and consumer advocates, insurance company executives, lawmakers and everyday Americans who already have benefited from the law’s changes, Obama said:

Some insurance companies tried to raise rates even before we passed the law, even though some of them were making record profits. Earlier this year, for example, more than 800,000 Anthem Blue Cross customers in California opened their mail to see that their premiums would go up by as much as 39 percent. My administration wanted to know why. People’s wages aren’t going up 39 percent, and the company’s expenses didn’t rise by 39 percent.

Facing mounting pressure, Anthem Blue Cross withdrew the rate hikes. Now says Obama:

The CEOs here today need to know that they’re going to be required to publicly justify unreasonable premium increases on your websites, as well as the law’s new website—healthcare.gov. As we set up the exchanges, we’ll be watching closely, and we’ll fully support states if they exercise their review authority to keep excessively expensive plans out of their insurance exchanges.

Under the law’s new rules issued today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Obama said the insurance companies’ “worst abuses will be banned forever.”

Beginning Sept. 23, insurance companies can no longer:

• Deny coverage for children based on  pre-existing conditions;
• Rescind or take away coverage based on an unintentional mistake on an application;
• Set lifetime limits on coverage; or
• Restrict their use of annual limits.

The new rules also ensure consumers can choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician they want from a plan’s provider network, see an OB-GYN without needing a referral and receive out of network emergency care without prior approval. By the time law is fully implemented, it will extend coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans. Click here for a five-page fact sheet on the health care reform law.

You can find frequently asked Affordable Care Act questions here and find updates from administration officials here. Sign up for e-mail updates on the health care reform law here.

Several brochures and other resources are available, too, including:

• The $250 Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” rebate, here.
• Young Adult Coverage Fact Sheet, here.
• How to use a new Internet portal to help individuals and small businesses identify insurance options in their state, here.

Click here to find out about health care reform’s impact on various communities, including African Americans, Latinos, women, small businesses, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Americans with disabilities, the LGBT community and veterans.