Volume 07, Issue 02

October 2007

"If you lie to us, we'll be angry."

These were the words of President Mark Smith in opening the August 2007 IFL Convention in Waterloo.  Smith decried the defections by some House Democrats who reneged on their promise to support Fair Share, one of labor’s priorities for the 2007 Legislative Session.

A big backlog of issues

Smith cited the backlog of issues—fair share, prevailing wage, public sector collective bargaining, choice of doctor for injured workers—that have piled up for labor after years of unfriendly Iowa governors and/or legislatures.  Describing the work which led to high expectations on Fair Share, Smith said,  “We had spent literally years explaining to legislators that all workers in a unit that are represented by a union had to be represented equally whether they are members or not. 

And we explained to them that all we wanted was the right to sit down at the bargaining table and negotiate, just as they do in 28 other states about whether they pay a fee for

the services they receive.”

We had it all in 2007

“2007 was supposed to be the culmination of all that effort,” Smith stated.   “We had both House and Senate leadership on our side, promising in private and in public that they’d pass Fair Share.”

Union members delivered...

Smith praised the efforts of the affiliate unions and their members in getting the message across to legislators.  He said, “We called you and you delivered, like never before in this state.”

...the legislature didn’t!
     But in the end, none of labor’s top priorities for 2007 became law.  In spite of the efforts of the labor movement, some legislators still went back on their word.  Smith said, “Some legislators wonder why the labor movement is so angry.  Let me put it simply:  if you lie to us, we’ll be angry. 

The bigger the issue, the angrier we’ll be.  And Fair Share is a huge, huge issue.”

We aren’t giving up

Executive Vice President Jan Laue reported on other bills passed by the 2007  we can.  We need to keep fighting for fair share…prevailing wage…choice of doctor…and expanding scope of bargaining for public employees.

“We thought we were going to get it this year, but we didn’t.  So we’re just going to have to work harder and we’re going to have to work longer.”

We need more and younger people

Looking to the longer term, Secretary-Treasurer Ken Sagar said that if labor doesn’t pull together on issues of common interest, “our grandchildren will have to re-invent the labor movement.  We need to see more and younger people in this room and in your union halls and we are going to have to make a concerted effort to get the next generation involved.

“We are at a crossroads.  There is a sense of discontent. People know something is wrong, but are too busy to pay attention… We have to be messengers for the labor movement.”

IFL CANDIDATE FORUM 

UNION LEADERS QUESTION CANDIDATES ON VITAL LABOR ISSUES

CWA President Larry Cohen, IFL Executive Vice-President Jan Laue, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka posed questions to the six leading candidates on trade and the economy, health care, and organizing and bargaining rights for American workers.  The Forum was moderated by IFL President Mark Smith. 

The candidates’ messages have consistency on the single most important union issue before Congress this session:  the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  Candidates serving in Congress all co-sponsored and voted for EFCA.  Those not in Congress have affirmed their determination to see it become law. 

Here are some excerpts from their comments at the Convention Forum.

Senator Joe Biden  “I marched in my conservative state of Delaware in picket lines.  ...  Ask any labor leader in my state.  So if you wonder whether or not somebody’s with you, I can show you the scars on my back ....  ... I’ve been with you for 34 years, and not in a labor state.  We shouldn’t settle for just stopping the dripping away of our power.  You need a President who will affirmatively go out to the American public and make the case why America’s security and future rests upon the growth of the union movement.  And it really is true.”

Senator Hillary Clinton   “I’m very proud that I have a great labor record.  And I’m very grateful that the AFL-CIO in New York has dubbed me their favorite Sister, because I’ve worked with them.  I’ve intervened in contract negotiations.  I have been there when they’ve been on strike, and been on a picket line.  I’ve tried to be helpful in getting people back to the bargaining table.  I will use the bully pulpit as President to try to make sure that we get that balance back the way it needs to be. 

“I want to be the President who brings back the American middle class, and one of the ways I’m going to do that is by bringing back the American labor movement.”

Senator Chris Dodd  “Over the years I have been proud to stand with organized labor…  And as President of the United States you have my commitment: I will stand and fight every single day to see to it that working men and women have the right to organize, to collectively bargain, and to fight for their rights. There’s something called the ‘Dodd Prize’ in Connecticut.  It’s given out every year to someone who strongly supports labor in the state of Connecticut.  I’ve never had to look over my shoulder to determine in my state whether or not labor was with me.  And you’re never going to have to look over your shoulder to determine whether or not I’m with you.  That’s a record I’m proud of.”

 Forum Allows Leading Candidates
to Highlight Labor Records

Former Senator John Edwards  “I truly believe the union movement is crucial to the future of America.  The truth is that your cause is at the heart of why I’m running for President of the United States.  ... when I wasn’t running for anything I’ve been out there with you.  When the crunch was there and nobody was looking, there were no cameras, I was there.  I was there on the picket line.  I was there in the organizing campaigns.  And I will always be there….as long as I’m alive and breathing I will be standing with you.   Think about a President of the United States walking a picket line.  You’re looking at one.”

Governor Bill Richardson  “I believe being a member of a union is good for American workers, and good for America.  ... I’ve always felt that unions in this country, historically, have represented a positive change for America, when it comes to wages and health care, when it comes to pensions, when it comes to protection.  As President, I would commit to you what I’ve done as governor and congressman for 15 years and Secretary of Energy, always backing unions and labor.  I would fight to get the Employee Free Choice Act passed.  … But it’s about who can change this country.  And I believe I can do that.” 

Senator Barack Obama  “Look, everybody in this field is pro-labor.  And that makes a tougher decision for all of you. ... And that’s a good thing, because it indicates that the Democratic Party has shaken off their timidity and they’re clear about who they should be working for and representing.  And that’s what we want.  That’s the kind of battle that we need to have.  That’s why I got into this thing.  I did it because I care about the same things you do.  And that ultimately has to be part of the test in this campaign.  Who’s going to be passionate about your issues and who can persuade people who aren’t passionate about your issues to get passionate?”

Complete transcripts of the candidate forum are posted on our website: 2007 Presidential forum

Resolutions Adopted at the 2007 Annual Convention, Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

þ RESOLUTION NO. 1 Health Care I  endorses Medicare for all (HR 676), a single payer health care system.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 2   Health Care II  similar to Resolution No. 1; merged with Res. No. 1.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 3  Vote by Mail urges  statewide and local election reform to allow for permanent absentee voter status, and move toward permanent Vote-by-Mail elections in Iowa.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 4 Fire Sprinkler Licensing supports licensing structure for fire sprinkler installation and fire sprinkler maintenance workers and employers.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 5  Choice of Doctor supports legislation that allows Iowa workers who are injured on the job to choose their medical care providers.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 6  Fair Share supports  amending Chapter 731 and the pertinent parts of Chapter 20 to allow Iowa unions to negotiate fair share clauses and urges them to educate members and their families.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 7   Prevailing Wage supports a prevailing wage law for construction workers in Iowa and urges education of legislators and members on the beneficial impact of a prevailing wage on the economy, on quality and on worker safety.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 8  U.S. Senate Election  makes an early endorsement of Tom Harkin for Senate in 2008; and urges Iowa unions to make every effort to register, educate and get their members out to vote for the re-election
of Senator Tom Harkin to the U.S. Senate.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 9  Caucus Participation  urges affiliated local unions and Iowa Central Labor Councils to encourage active worker participation in presidential candidates’ events and to educate working women and men on the importance of participating in their precinct caucuses.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 10  Supporting Unionized Companies by Urging City and State Governments to Switch Cellular Service to Responsible Providers  asks delegates to the IFL convention to switch cellular service to unionized AT&T Mobility, use the 18 percent union discount, and ask city and state government officials to switch governmental cell phone service to AT&T Mobility.

þ RESOLUTION NO. 11 Scope of Bargaining  continues support of legislation that expands the scope of bargaining for public sector employees.

All resolutions adopted at the 2007 IFL Convention are posted on our website:  2007 Resolutions.

A printed copy of all resolutions is available from:

Call 515-262-9571/800-372-4817  or e-mail ifl@iowaaflcio.org

Trumka to the Right Wing: “We have you in our sights!”

Harkin wins
early endorsement

  AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka brought delegates a  message about labor’s political clout:   “Last November we put on a demonstration of political power the likes of which no one had seen in decades.  And on Election Day, union household members were 1 out of every 4 votes at the polls.  And union member voters went 75% for our endorsed candidates.”

On the Employee Free Choice Act, he pointed out, we were short of the 60 votes that we need to overcome a filibuster and short of the 67 votes that we need to overturn a presidential veto.   That vote delivered a strong message “to big corporations and the right wing ideologues in our country. 

“The message it said was: We have you in our sights, and next year we will pick up the Senate votes that we need to pass the bill and we will elect a president who will thank working people and sign that bill once it’s put on his desk.”

Senator Tom Harkin spoke at the Convention’s political banquet, showing again why he is regarded as one of the most progressive Senators in the country.  Harkin called for a new President and a new Congress in the ‘08 election to “get the United States back on track and erase the shameful record of the Bush Administration and its Republican toadies in Congress.” 

   Senator Harkin’s 23 years in the Senate have been marked by his efforts to implement landmark legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.  He has been with us on our most important bills, from his sponsorship of a bill to outlaw striker replacement to his support of the Employee Free Choice Act.  In his most recent term, Senator Harkin voted to support an increase in the minimum wage, to protect workers’ overtime pay, and to extend unemployment benefits to workers who have not been able to find a job. Harkin also made clear that he is 100% behind Fair Share in Iowa.

   For these reasons, the 2007 convention voted to make an early endorsement of Tom Harkin for Senate in 2008. 

“Born and raised in a family that believed in unions, I know that unions get me the wages and life that I have.  The 20 years I have lived, I owe to the labor movement.”  Tyler Norgart, 20, IBEW 204.

“The Labor movement means a stronger voice in the workplace and a fair shake for working people.”  Tom Ballard, 31, USW 164.

“Folks my age have known a world where union benefits have always existed.  I understand that we could lose these things in an instant without the labor movement.  So for me, joining the union was never a question; it was just the right thing to do.”  Mike Salvner, 30, AFSCME 1868.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build
our youth for the future.”      Franklin D. Roosevelt

For the Wealthy: A Great Time to be Rich

In 2005 the richest 13,776 taxpayers (1/100 of 1%) reported incomes of $10 million or more.  They averaged $27.3 million.

 Compare that to 50 years ago, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was President.  In 1955 the 13,983 highest-income tax returns reported at least $873,355 (in 2005 dollars) in income.  The average income for these returns was $1.8 million (compared to $27.3 million in 2005).

The difference?  The 13,983 highest-income tax returns of 1955 reported just one-fifteenth of the income that went to 2005’s top 13,776.

But that’s not all!  The rich today don’t just make more, they pay a lot less as a percentage of their income in taxes.

What if we taxed the rich today the way Dwight D. Eisenhower did in the 1950’s?  The wealthy Americans who filed 1955’s 13,983 highest income tax returns paid 47.4% of their total earnings in federal income taxes, but the rate paid by 2005’s richest 13,776 was just 20.9%--less than half as much as those Eisenhower era rich!

US TAX SYSTEM

The US tax system under Bush has become a quicker, easier way for the rich to get richer— much easier than good old fashioned hard work.

What About Iowa?

Sadly, Iowa families in lower income brackets pay more, in percentage terms, than do the richest Iowans.  That is, if you compare the total amount paid in income tax, sales tax and property tax as a percentage of income, the greater the income, the less the percentage of that income that is paid in taxes.

Legislation helped narrow the gap in the 2007 session by expanding the earned income tax credit for low income Iowans.  The most effective action that the Legislature could take now would be to eliminate federal deductibility, which would result in upper income Iowans paying their fair share of taxes.

A Billionaire’s Challenge

At a political fundraiser for the super rich, billionaire Warren Buffet said, “This is what Congress in its wisdom did:  the 400 of us here pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies for that matter.”

Then Buffett offered a million dollars to anyone in the group that could prove that they paid a greater percentage of their income than their receptionists did.

There were no takers.

HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA IS SICK

According to President George W. Bush, “People have access to health care in America.  After all, you just go to the emergency room.”  Bush doesn’t live in the real world.

In the real world, 47 million Americans are without health insurance year round, including 307,000 Iowans. New data from Families USA suggests that maintaining health insurance is a constant struggle for tens of millions more Americans.  The data indicates that almost 90 million Americans under age 65 lacked health care insurance for at least part of 2006-2007, even though 70 percent of the uninsured worked full time.

To top it off, millions of people who think they’ve got good insurance find out otherwise when they get sick and their insurance doesn’t cover the whole bill

Rapidly increasing costs are crippling families and employers, while drug and health insurance companies are raking in exorbitant profits.  (Have you been following the hullabaloo about Wellmark BC/BS wanting to have its name attached to the School of Public Health in Iowa City in exchange for $15 million?)  Now where does this “non profit” insurance company get $15 million to donate?

If you want more proof, go see Michael Moore’s movie, “SiCKO.”  Steelworker President Leo Gerard wrote that SiCKO documents how medical insurance companies “act like a cancer on this country’s health care system,” a system that “we want to eliminate with a national health care system.”  The movie opens with three scenes documenting the failure of America’s insurance system:  1) an injured worker sutures up his own lacerated knee because he is one of the 47 million Americans without health insurance; 2) a couple moves in with their daughter after co-payments for his three heart attacks and her cancer forced them into bankruptcy; 3) a young woman tells of her 18-month-old baby dying when a hospital refused to treat her because her insurance would not pay for services there.

There is a solution to the health care problem.  Delegates to the 2007 Iowa AFL-CIO convention unanimously passed a resolution to support HR 676.

This legislation, sponsored by Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) would provide an improved Medicare for all Americans.  As one delegate remarked, “If Medicare works for our parents and grandparents, why not for all of us?”

“Socialized medicine?” Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly denounced any Democratic proposal, such as the Conyers bill, as “socialized medicine.”

     Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons hit the nail on the head when he wrote,   “Yeah, well, in most of America (especially in New York City), we already have socialized water, sewage, trash collection, police and fire departments, highways, public schools, libraries, parks, airports, universities, even medical schools.  We recognize that these are universal human needs too crucial to be left to the vagaries of the marketplace.”

The Health Care Debate Comes to Iowa

    The 2007 Iowa Legislature established the Commission on Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses and Families to develop a pathway for more affordable health care, improved access and comprehensive coverage for all Iowans.  The Commission is to submit recommendations to the Legislature prior to the 2008 session in January.

    Realistically, a national solution is needed, such as HR 676, cited above.  But states are not waiting for the federal government to act.  Some, like Massachusetts, are embracing an individual mandate which would require every resident to purchase health insurance.  To make insurance affordable for everyone would require substantial subsidies by the state, something that the Iowa Legislature has not been willing to grant.

       What Iowa can do to move toward a better health care system is:

1) Improve our health care infrastructure by:

• making the system more transparent,

• creating a system of electronic records, and

• ensuring that we have adequate medical personnel;

2) Expand and improve state programs that work, like Medicaid and HAWK-I;

3) Encourage wellness and prevention programs.

     Everyone has a role in solving the health care dilemma, not only workers and employers, but also providers, insurers and government.

The Sad State of Working in Iowa
IPP

“If this recovery is a rising tide, it’s sinking most of us in Iowa,” Colin Gordon, The State of Working Iowa 2007.

The State of Working Iowa 2007, a biennial report by the Iowa Policy Project, paints a dismal picture: 

· Good jobs with benefits are disappearing. 

· Wages are down, health care coverage is down, premiums and co-pays are up.  Nearly half of working Iowans don’t have pensions. 

· Twenty-five percent of all Iowans who go to work every day earn less than $9.60 an hour.

  The 2007 projections for our children are dismal as well.  Seventy percent of projected job openings over the next 7 years will pay less than $13.77 an hour.  

Excerpted from The State of Working Iowa 2007, available on the web at <http://www.iowapolicyproject.org>.

The good news: 

 A union card
makes a $4 an hour difference for
workers in Iowa. 

The “Union Difference” in Midwest Wages