Local 8183 News

Local 8183 Toy Drive - Monday, October 19, 2009
Local 8183 Teams up with Toys for Tots...
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Health Care Update - Tuesday, October 06, 2009
An update on whats going on with Health Care Reform...
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AFL-CIO website helps laid off workers - Tuesday, October 06, 2009
The AFL-CIO has launched a web site to help laid off and jobless workers....
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Obama rules in favor of USW - Monday, October 05, 2009
Preident Obama rules in favor of the USW concerning China's tire imports....
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Cooper Tire breaks ranks - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Cooper Tire is the first of the major tire companys to come out in the favor of the Chineese goverment....
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Local 8183 Blogs

Interesting Article
By Web Wednesday, December 31, 1969

Article from Alabama that mentions Horsehead as a major enviromental polluter
[ Read More ]

Newsletters now online
By John Saunders Wednesday, December 31, 1969

Rome Union Newsletters are now online
[ Read More ]

Horsehead Restarts a Kiln
By Web Wednesday, December 31, 1969

Horsehead restarts a Kiln in Rockwood
[ Read More ]

Web Site
By Bernie Hall Wednesday, December 31, 1969

Welcome to 8183's new web site
[ Read More ]

Meal Ticket Arbitration Heard
By John Jeffers Wednesday, December 31, 1969

Meal Ticket Arbitration heard on July 9, 2009
[ Read More ]

USW Media Center

U.S. House to Examine China's Exchange Rate Policy - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Ways and Means Chairman Sander M. Levin today announced a full committee hearing to consider whether China’s June announcement to allow exchange rate flexibility has led to material appreciation of the renminbi (RMB). The hearing will take place on Wednesday, September 15, 2010.

“China’s currency policy is central to the trade imbalance that is destroying North American industries and jobs,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We commend Congressman Levin’s leadership in calling this hearing to examine this issue.”

In addition, the Committee will hear testimony as to whether Congress or the Administration should take action to address China’s unfair currency policy and its impact on U.S. businesses and workers. 

“There is no real question that China’s deliberately undervalued exchange rate is unfair, contributes to global trade imbalances, and costs the United States jobs and economic growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector,” said Chairman Levin.  “We must ensure that China’s rhetoric translates into results that are meaningful and that the international trading system ensures fair rules of competition.”

While there is now a growing recognition that China’s deliberately and substantially undervalued currency contributes to global economic imbalances and impedes economic recovery and job creation, the issue itself is not new.  The United States has been pressing China to allow the RMB to appreciate for more than seven years.

Six years ago, the Treasury Department expressed concern when China’s foreign exchange reserves (accumulated as a result of its currency market interventions) rose to $346 billion.  Today those reserves exceed $2.4 trillion.   And, according to some recent estimates, the RMB may be undervalued by between 25 and 40 percent against the dollar. 

China allowed the RMB to appreciate somewhat beginning in July 2005, but China halted appreciation during the summer of 2008, when the global economic crisis caused China to redouble its efforts to stimulate exports.  On June 19, one week before the G-20 Summit in Toronto, China announced that it would allow flexibility in its exchange rate. 

But as of today, the RMB has appreciated less than one percent against the dollar.  China recently announced that its trade surplus grew by 44 percent in June (compared to June 2009); while the United States recently announced that the U.S. trade deficit in May grew by 4.8 percent -- with the bilateral trade deficit with China growing by 15 percent.

 

USW Lauds Solis and Kirk for Standing Up for Workers' Rights in Guatemala - Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Situations in Colombia & Mexico Need Scrutiny, Too

United Steelworker (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard released this statement today in response to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and U.S. Trade representative calls for formal investigation of worker rights violations in Guatemala.

“We commend Secretary Solis and Ambassador Kirk for beginning the formal process of addressing workers’ rights violations in Guatemala.   This is the first step in the process, and sends a strong signal that the United States will enforce the law in this important area.   Proper recognition and enforcement of workers’ rights are vital to the proper functioning of markets and the global economy ... more

Federal Judge Makes Correct Call on Arizona Immigration Law - Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

 

Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), released the following statement on today’s injunction to block key provisions of Arizona’s anti-immigration law.

“U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton made the correct call in blocking the most controversial sections of Arizona’s new immigration law from taking effect tomorrow ... more

 

USW Cites Congressional Effort Asking Obama Administration to Address Chinese Subsidies of Paper Industry Threatening US Jobs - Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The United Steelworkers (USW) joins Appleton Coated LLC, NewPage Corporation, and Sappi Fine Paper North America in applauding the efforts of more than 100 Members of Congress who wrote to President Obama today, asking for action on Chinese subsidies to that nation’s paper producers.

The letter to the U.S. President urges he “carefully examine the practices employed by the Chinese government to provide its paper industry an artificial and unfair advantage in the U.S. market, and determine the extent to which these practices cause or threaten to cause harm to American producers.” The letter was spurred by the devastating impact that Chinese unfairly-priced paper exports are having on the industry all across the country.

USW President Leo W.Gerard said: "We commend the action taken by this bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and Congressional members demanding that China obey international trade laws.  Too many jobs and too many companies are being destroyed because of how China subsidizes production and violates free trade principles in paper manufacturing as well as in other industries." ... for more

USW Congratulates Rubber Workers at Firestone in Liberia on New Contract - Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Heavy Loads Lifted from Tappers’ Backs

The United Steelworkers (USW) today congratulated the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) on achieving a new collective bargaining agreement at the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.  The agreement contains a landmark provision to change the method of transporting latex to weigh stations.

“Since 1926, rubber tappers have carried a heavy load across their backs for miles,” said Fred Redmond, USW International Vice President for Human Affairs “FAWUL has achieved an historic change by negotiating a new motorized transport system.  It’s a milestone for its members and a major victory for human rights.  We need now to make sure that the agreement is enforced and extended to every corner of the plantation.”

In the new agreement, the union has negotiated a commitment to “change the current mode of transportation.”  For more than 80 years, rubber tappers were forced to carry two metal buckets, weighing up to 150 pounds, suspended from a stick across their shoulders.  Tappers carried these heavy loads to weigh stations which in some areas were miles away.  According to rubber tappers and human rights observers, this out-dated method of transportation took a severe toll on workers’ health, leading to a variety of debilitating injuries ... more

USW expresses condolences to Horsehead victims, Local sets up memorial fund - Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The United Steelworkers (USW) Local 8183 and the entire Steelworkers family today expressed its deepest condolences to the loved ones of those injured and killed in last night's explosion at Horeshead Corp.'s zinc processing facility in Monaca, Pa. The union also announced today that it has established a memorial fund to help the victims' families. Click here for more. 

 

 

United Steelworkers Send 100,000 Letters Urging Action on Clean Energy Jobs Legislation, Creating and Maintaining Manufacturing Jobs - Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

As the U.S. Senate prepares to take up clean energy legislation, members of the United Steelworkers, along with USW International Secretary-Treasurer Stan Johnson and BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director David Foster, today highlighted the more than 100,000 letters sent from USW members urging action on strong clean energy jobs legislation with critical policies aimed at creating and maintaining good manufacturing jobs across the United States. 

“Union members sent more than 100,000 letters urging action on clean energy jobs legislation that includes the investments that we need to create and maintain good, middle class manufacturing jobs in this country,” said Dennis Barker, a member of the United Steelworkers from Granite City, Illinois. “Now it is time for the Senate to get moving on clean energy jobs legislation ... more

USW Hails Mexican Superior Court Decision Vindicating Los Mineros Leader Napoleon Gomez - Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Leo W.Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), hails a decision, by the Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District of Mexico, dismissing an arrest warrant issued against Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, Secretary-General of the National Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and Allied Workers of Mexico (Los MIneros).
 
The judgment (No. 736/2010) issued last Friday (Jul. 9), spurred the Attorney General of Mexico to remove Gomez’s photo and related information from the A-G’s Federal District internet page, vindicating Gomez and four Los Mineros union leaders: Juan Linares Montufar, Hector Felix Estrella, Gregorio Perez-Romo and Jose Angel Rocha-Perez. Each was charged with allegations claiming illegal conduct in relation to the administration of a trust fund first established in 1988 but not realized until 2004 in a settlement with Grupo Mexico ... more

Labeling China's Currency Undervalued Correct; USW Calls for More Action - Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The U.S. Treasury report issued yesterday designating the Chinese currency as undervalued is a small step in the right direction. 

The undervalued yuan, also called renminbi, artificially depresses the cost of Chinese products and falsely increases the price of American goods. The resulting lopsided trade has closed American factories and cost American jobs. 

“The administration is correct in calling the renminbi undervalued,” said Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers (USW) union. “The next crucial step is to do something about it,” he added. The USW supports legislation that would punish China for currency manipulation sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and others and in the House by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan D-Ohio and others.

China undervalues its currency by using renminbi to buy dollars. China now holds $2.4 trillion in U.S. currency. Even conservative economists agree that the renminbi is undervalued as a result by between 25 and 40 percent against the dollar ... more

Steelworkers Ratify Five-Year Collective Agreement With Vale - Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Workers Approve New Contract by 74% Margin, Ending Year-Long Strike

United Steelworkers (USW) members in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ont., voted today to end their year-long strike against mining giant Vale, approving a new collective agreement.

USW Local 6500 members in Sudbury voted 75% in favour of the new contract, while Local 6200 members in Port Colborne ratified the deal by a 74% margin.

“Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances,” said Wayne Fraser, the USW’s District Director for Ontario and Atlantic Canada ... more

USW Pursues Safety Negotiations with Oil Industry - Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

United Steelworkers (USW) Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union’s oil sector, sent a request to the oil industry to re-open the National Oil Bargaining pattern agreement and negotiate health and safety provisions.

“I’ve asked the industry to sit down and have an honest discussion about handling safety effectively,” said Beevers. “Let’s conduct a thorough analysis, then negotiate a signed agreement that addresses the alarming deterioration in safety throughout the oil industry.”

This spring was tragic in the oil sector. During the months of April and May there were 13 fires, 19 deaths and 25 injuries. This year refineries have averaged one fire per week. These figures reflect only reported incidents. There could be more because refineries have no legal obligation to report every incident ... more

Ratification Votes Set, Agreement on Terms of Bad Faith Complaint - Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The USW is pleased to announce that it has come to an agreement with Vale on the terms of a bad faith bargaining complaint that will be heard by the OLRB. This removes the remaining obstacle in the long struggle with Vale and enables the Union to conduct membership meetings along with ratification votes now scheduled for July 7 and 8, 2010 in Sudbury and July 8, 2010 in Port Colborne.

By the Letter of Agreement signed today and to be approved by the Vice Chair of OLRB panel hearing this matter, the issue of the procedure for the reinstatement to employment of the nine discharged striking employees will be heard by the OLRB commencing on July 9, 2010.

The Union is confident that the OLRB will agree that leaving the issue of the possible reinstatement of employees discharged during the strike at an impasse and refusing to agree to arbitrate that issue amounts to a violation of the duty to bargain under the Labour Relations Act and is not lawful. The Union says that any other result fundamentally undermines freedom of association and the right to strike and destabilizes the sensitive balance required to make labour relations and collective bargaining effective in Ontario ... more

 

New Study Reinforces USW Position that Improper Chinese Subsidies Destroy Jobs in American Paper Industry - Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

A study released today documenting illegal subsidies to Chinese paper producers strengthens the argument of the United Steelworkers (USW) union that U.S., policymakers must intervene now to preserve the domestic paper industry and hundreds of thousands of good-paying  jobs.

The report, No Paper Tiger: Subsidies to China’s Paper Industry from 2002-2009, released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) documents $33 billion in government subsidies to the Chinese paper industry for pulp, coal, electricity and recycled paper, enabling the Chinese paper industry to sell its products at artificially low prices.

That falsely low-priced paper dumped on the U.S. market makes American-manufactured paper appear uncompetitive, forcing plant closings, killing jobs and damaging communities ... more

New Report Provides Blueprint for Building Domestic Wind Energy Component Supply Chain - Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

BlueGreen Alliance, American Wind Energy Association, and USW Provide “Manufacturing Blueprint” to Build Out Domestic Wind Energy Supply Chain and Create U.S. Manufacturing Jobs

According to a report released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), BlueGreen Alliance and the United Steelworkers, the U.S. wind industry can create tens of thousands of additional jobs manufacturing wind turbines and components if the U.S. passes long-term policies that create a stable market for the domestic wind energy supply chain.

“Wind energy provides one of the most promising sources of new manufacturing jobs for American workers,” said Rob Gramlich, Senior Vice President of Public Policy for AWEA. “This report shows how the right policies such as a Renewable Electricity Standard will build the supply chain and create those jobs.”

“This report represents a major alignment between our goals for energy independence and creating the clean energy jobs of the future,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). “This ‘manufacturing blueprint’ is a critical step toward ensuring that we don’t replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on Chinese-made wind turbines. With the right policies, clean energy will help revitalize American manufacturing. We must ensure that American manufacturers have the resources they need to build clean wind energy components and by doing so, help establish America as a global leader of clean energy technologies.” Click here for more ...

Steelworkers Mourn Loss of Senator Byrd - Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard issued the following statement today concerning the death of U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)

“Members of our union and workers across the country are grieving the loss of Senator Robert Byrd, a giant among his fellow legislators and one of the greatest friends that working families have ever had." Click Here for more ...

 

Steelworkers Ratify 4-year Contract with Alcoa - Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

A new 4-year labor agreement between the United Steelworkers (USW) union and Alcoa covering some 6,000 workers at 11 U.S. locations has been ratified in a secret ballot vote by the membership.   

The agreement provides for lump sum bonuses of $2,250 this year, $1,750 next year; general wage increases of 2.5% in each of the following two years; and a $2 per month per year of service increase in the pension multiplier.

During negotiations, Alcoa proposed a series of changes in health care benefits which would have dramatically shifted costs to employees through reduced coverage and higher employee premium amounts. Although the proposal was designed to appear to offer greater individual choice, in reality each of the options offered only poorer coverage and higher costs ... more

 

NEW VIDEO: President Gerard Talks Labor, Obama, Health Care and More - Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

USW Represents at U.S. Social Forum in Detroit - Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

This week, tens of thousands of activists from around the country and around the world have descended on Detroit for the second-ever United States Social Forum.  

This year's Social Forum brings together activists from hundreds of organizations and dozens of different movements under the single banner "Another World is Possible, Another U.S. is Necessary."  

The Forum opened with a massive march down Detroit's Woodward Avenue ending at Cobo Hall. A delegation of about two dozen Steelworkers joined the march including USW District 2 Director Michael Bolton and members of USW Local 6500 who have been on strike against mining giant Vale-Inco for more than 11 months.  

Over the next three days, the Steelworkers will be hosting two workshops: "Manufacturing Builds Communities" and "Fighting Sweatshops in the Global Economy," as well as holding a fundraiser party to benefit the USW members on strike at Vale.  

If you couldn't make it to Detroit, follow the action online with streaming audio and video at www.ussf2010.org.  For live updates of the forum follow "ussf" and #ussf2010 on Twitter.  

USW: Need stronger safety standards in oil industry, more - Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

United Steelworkers Vice President Gary Beevers spoke with Workers Independent News today about the need for improved safety standards in the oil industry and more. Click here to listen to the report. Click here for more on the USW's Health, Safety and Environment efforts and here for more on our oil workers.

Correspondent Doug Cunningham filed this report for WIN:

United Steelworkers Vice President Gary Beevers says whether it’s at the bargaining table or in the halls of Congress, the union is determined 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.

[Beevers]: “We intend to push for all of the above. In addition to that, I think we need to have an independent oversight or regulatory commission kind of like the nuclear industry to overview refining safety. We need to push to get a bigger budget for OSHA so that OSHA can do the kind of inspections it needs to be doing. There needs to be a change in the system for levying fines and enforcement. Right now you can kill somebody and have a willful violation and the only thing that OSHA can fine ‘em is seven thousand dollars.”

USW, Los Mineros Announce Cross-border Unification Commission - Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The United Steelworkers (USW) and the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM) - known as Los Mineros - announced a joint declaration to create a cross-border commission to explore unification of  a potential union representing one-million industrial workers in Mexico, Canada, U.S. and the Caribbean.

In signing the declaration over the weekend, USW President Leo W. Gerard and Napoleon Gomez, general secretary for Los Mineros, jointly renewed the two unions "common commitment to democracy, equality, and solidarity for working men and women throughout North America and throughout the world." Click here for more.

 

 

Embattled Striking Miners in Mexico Are Led from BC - Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The lip of an enormous copper mine pit looms behind the dusty streets of Cananea in Sonora, Mexico. Walk those streets, and you encounter outsized memorials and tributes to the mine and its workers, the kinds of markers you might find in the British Columbian communities of Kimberley, Logan's Lake, Trail, or any other mining towns that dot the rural landscape across North America.

Cananea is the largest mine in Mexico, at one time responsible for some 40 per cent of the country's copper output. At a high point on the main road leading to the mine stands what used to be a movie house. Now it is the union office and hall of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalurgicos y Similares de la Republica Mexicana (Los Mineros) mineworkers union ... more

Courtesy of The Tyee

Steelworkers Reject Century Aluminum's offer at Hawesville; Continue Bargaining - Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Hawesville, Ky. - Members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9423 rejected a final contract offer from Century Aluminum yesterday by a secret ballot vote of 443 to 2, sending a strong message to management that terms of the offer fell short of expectations and that the union membership will not be intimidated into accepting a bad deal.

The union also protests unfair labor practices, such as the threats used by Century during contract talks.  USW Local 9423 President John Beaver said, "This overwhelming vote shows that the workers will not be intimidated by management's threats, including threats of shutting down the plant.

"The membership has given the union authorization to call a strike," Beaver said.  "But we are going to continue bargaining and make every effort to reach a satisfactory agreement." Click here for more.

USW, UMWA Demand Action to Elevate Worker Lives over Profit - Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Pittsburgh, PA - At an emergency meeting conducted this week to discuss disturbing rates of worker deaths, two labor international union leaders demanded compliance from corporations and rigorous enforcement of regulations from government.

Leo W. Gerard, United Steelworkers (USW) union international president, and Cecil E. Roberts, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) international president, discussed strategies to reduce the number of workers killed on the job, a statistic that is shockingly high thus far in 2010.

Both spoke to a gathering of USW oil workers in Pittsburgh about the horrifying death figures. These include 46 miners killed since Jan. 1, which is 12 more than the 34 who died in workplace incidents throughout all of 2009. The statistics also include the deaths of 19 oil and refinery workers in just April and May. Click here for more.

 

Alcoa Contract Summary - June 2010 - Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Click Here to read the Press Release, Steelworkers Ratify 4-year Contract with Alcoa

Click Here to download the Alcoa Contract Summary.  Ratification Vote set for June 24, 2010

Click here to download the June 1, 2010, bargaining update.

Click here to download the June 1, 2010 Tentative Agreement statement

Click here to download the May 28, 2010, bargaining update.

Click Here to download "If Alcoa Gets Its Way" from May 27, 2010.

Click here to download the May 27, 2010, bargaining update.

Click here to download the May 26, 2010, bargaining update, which explains some of what is lost under the proposed “Alcoa Choices Plan.”

Click here to download the May 25, 2010, USW bargaining update concerning Alcoa: Accepting "choices" means giving up the right to negotiate. Your Negotiating Committee says, "no" to this company proposal. 

Click here to download the May 24, 2010, bargaing update: As was the case four years ago, our health care, and its cost, has emerged as a major focus in the negotiations for a new contract. Your Negotiating Committee has been working hard to understand the Company's proposals and their implications for union members.

Click here to download the May 20, 2010, bargaining update.

Click here to download the April 30, 2010, bargaining update.

 

Terror, Deception and Blackmail by Mexican Government Undermine International Efforts to Bring End to Mineworkers Conflicts, say United Steelworkers - Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo Gerard and USW National Director for Canada Ken Neumann charge that a recent series of terrorist actions conducted by the Government of Mexico has undermined international efforts to bring an end to the more than four-year conflict between the Mexican government and the National Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and Allied Workers of Mexico (Los Mineros).

Responding to the 6 June, 2010 invasion of the Grupo Mexico copper mine and facilities in Cananea, Sonora by over 2,000 federal and state police officers, backed by armed helicopters, the grave injuries of Los Mineros members Filiberto Salazar Anselmo and Rafael Angel Covarrubias Garcia, and the forceful eviction of Los Mineros Section 65 members who have been on legal strike since July 2007, Gerard says that the government of Mexican president Felipe Calderon has launched a “reign of terror” against working people.

In addition to the seriously injured individuals, there were at least three people (including one youth) hit by bullets or projectiles. Others were beaten and suffered the effects of tear gas. Police arrested five union members (Rodolfo Valdez Serrano, Everardo Ochoa Ballesteros, Luis Alonso Borbón Pérez, Luis Alonso Torres y Marcelo Lara López) and have search warrants out for various union leaders ... more

 

AFL-CIO Now Blog

 

Tell Your Senator to Support State Aid to Save Essential Jobs -

The Senate  on Monday will make one more attempt to overcome a Republican filibuster of aid to state and local governments that would save or create nearly a million jobs for teachers, public employees, police officers, firefighters and others.

Without such funding, the states that are facing huge budget shortfalls will be forced to begin massive layoffs that could cost nearly a million workers their jobs.

An amendment to the Federal Aviation authorization bill (H.R. 1586) would provide $16 billion for a Medicaid funding assistance program known as FMAP and $10 million for teachers’ jobs. The vote is expected to occur late Monday afternoon.

On Monday please call your senators and tell them to pass H.R. 1586 with essential aid to states and school districts.

A recent study by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) shows that at least 25 states assumed an extension of the enhanced FMAP funding for their 2011 budgets. Without it, according to the report, budget gaps could grow by more than $12 billion in the current fiscal year and as much as $72 billion next fiscal year, forcing cuts in vital services and jobs to make up for the shortfalls.

Says AFSCME President Gerald McEntee:

Republicans continue to block emergency aid for state and local governments, funding that the majority of U.S. governors have specifically requested, and almost half have factored into their state budgets. Without this funding, nearly a million more jobs will be lost in the private and public sectors.

CWA: Let the Senate Breathe and Work, End Republican Filibuster Stranglehold -

Long gone are the days of U.S. senators standing on the floor of the Senate as hours turned to days while they filibustered legislation they hoped they could talk to death because they didn’t have the votes to kill it outright.

Senate rules no longer require filibustering senators to stay on the floor and speak while all Senate business grinds to a halt, as in the iconic scene in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” where Jimmy Stewart’s character filibusters to exhaustion.

That’s meant the once-rare filibuster that requires 60 votes to break is now the biggest and most frequent weapon in the Republican obstructionist arsenal. And it’s being fired at a record rate, stalling or killing legislation such as health care reform, unemployment insurance, Wall Street reform, jobs legislation, aid to states, vital spending bills and just about anything that’s not on the Republican corporate/right-wing agenda. These and other filibuster targets likely would have passed on a simple majority vote.

This week at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) convention in Washington, D.C., delegates approved a resolution calling for an end to filibusters and the use of  “holds” on nominations that have stalled hundreds of Obama administration judicial nominees and other vital appointments.

The resolution says the frequent use of the filibuster has now become:

a vicious partisan tool that prevents consideration of most legislation. As the use of the filibuster has become routine, it has become increasingly rare for the Senate to consider legislation, approve nominations and pass annual appropriations bills. The Senate’s dysfunction and the continued abuse of this procedure by the current Republican minority have led to paralysis throughout the federal government.

Senators aren’t even required to officially filibuster. The threat of a filibuster alone stalls legislation, writes Paul Hogarth at BeyondChron.com.

Senate Republicans have made “60 the new 51” by simply announcing that they’ll filibuster everything. But these are effectively pre-emptive filibusters—killing legislation before any debate starts (let alone ends).

The CWA resolution says reform of Senate rules must take place:

if we are to make progress on any progressive reforms in our country….The filibuster must be eliminated and the use of holds to deny the appointment of qualified individuals must come to an end.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) this week told Talking Points Memo (TPM) that Republican filibuster tactics are taking their toll.

A lot of us have been completely worn down by a requirement of 60 votes on everything. This was rare when I got here 14 years ago and now it is rare otherwise.

While CWA’s resolution calls on the Senate to change its rules when it reconvenes as the 112th Congress in January and completely eliminate filibusters and holds, there are other efforts to modify the filibuster and hold rules that would still allow the tactics but make it easier for a majority to end the stalls.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) addressed the Netroots Nation meeting last week and said:

We’re going to have to change it….We’re looking at ways to change what has been an abuse.

Earlier this week, Dylan Matthews at Ezra Klein’s Washington Post blog reported on proposals from Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). Bennet’s would:

eliminate anonymous holds, limit holds without bipartisan support to two days and limit all holds to 30 days. It would require 41 senators to vote to uphold the filibuster, reversing the current requirement that 60 senators vote to stop it.

Lautenberg’s plan has been dubbed the “Mr. Smith bill” because it would require senators to stay in the chamber and continue speaking throughout the filibuster. Says Lautenberg:

Filibusters should happen on Capitol Hill, not from the Capital Grille [restaurant]. If any of my colleagues feel strongly enough about a bill or nomination to stop all work in the Senate, they should have no problem standing on the Senate floor to explain their opposition to the American public.

Click here for more from Matthews on a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on filibusters and holds.

Also, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) has proposed that the Senate assert its authority at the beginning of the next Congress to change the filibuster rule by a majority vote of the Senate, rather than subject that change itself to a filibuster. And Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has proposed a rule that would enable successive votes to end debate on a matter, with 60 as the first necessary threshold, then 57, 54 and 51—a simple majority.

New Health Care Law Gives Medicare Lots to Celebrate at 45 -

Medicare turns 45 today—and as Dr. Don Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, points out:

“Before Medicare, millions of the nation’s seniors were uninsured. Since then, Medicare has been the bedrock of the nation’s health care system.”

The new health care legislation Congress passed this year gives Medicare—and the seniors who depend upon it—lots to celebrate, because the law enhances Medicare coverage. But “unfortunately, too many retirees remain skeptical and unaware of these new benefits,” says Edward F. Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans.

This is the shameful legacy of sustained scare tactics and falsehoods aimed at older Americans during the health care debate.

Medicare’s 45th birthday is a good time to check out how the health care legislation boosts benefits, and the Alliance, which has prepared an extensive series of fact sheets on these new benefits, says the new health care law:

• Provides a $250 rebate to those in the Medicare “doughnut hole,” and in subsequent years fully closes this coverage gap.

• Ends co-payments and deductibles for annual physicals, mammograms, colonoscopies and other preventive screenings.

• Helps early retirees (ages 55 to 64) better afford and keep their private health insurance.

• Enables middle-class families to better afford the high costs of long-term care.

• Strengthens the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by ending wasteful taxpayer subsidies and overpayments to private insurance companies who operate Medicare Advantage programs.

So, why do so many Republican Senate candidates oppose Medicare? In fact, nine Republican candidates would end Medicare, think it’s a mistake or believe it is Soviet socialism. They are: Sharron Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Dan Coats in Indiana, David Vitter in Louisiana, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, John Boozman in Arkansas, Roy Blunt in Missouri and Jane Norton and Ken Buck in Colorado.

Angle has said that Medicare needs to be phased out, while Johnson would eliminate traditional Medicare by limiting eligibility. Paul thinks it’s out and out socialism. Find out more about why these Senate Republican candidates would kill Medicare here.

UAW: U.S. Cars on the Road to Success -

Higher profits and new fuel-efficient models have put American-made cars back on the road again—with the help of taxpayers and the workers who have worked closely with the Big Three automakers to ensure their success.

In July, Ford posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit of $2.6 billion—some $1 billion more than analysts predicted—with promises of more earnings in 2011. Chrysler, which cut its net loss to $197 million from January through March, expects to announce its second-quarter earnings in mid-August. General Motor’s (GM’s) U.S. sales for June rose 11 percent from the year-ago period and the company is again building popular cars.

Says UAW President Bob King:

The commitment, sacrifices and hard work of the men and women at UAW-represented companies is an enormous part of the positive news coming from Ford, GM and Chrysler, where UAW members are producing best-in-class quality results and building vehicles that hands-down beat global competition.

Taxpayer investment in aiding GM and Chrysler is paying off: A July 25 analysis by the Detroit Free Press suggested taxpayers could get back about $74 billion of the $86 billion the federal government made available in 2008 and 2009 to save GM, Chrysler and Ally Financial.

The Obama administration made the right move in aiding GM and Chrysler, King says, adding that because the administration understands: 

how vital auto manufacturing jobs are to every community in this country, these companies and UAW workers can and will continue to succeed.

Medicare at 45: Health Reform Means New Benefits for Seniors -

Barbara Easterling is the president of the Alliance for Retired Americans and former secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the AFL-CIO. She began her union career 36 years ago as a telephone operator and local union officer in Akron, Ohio.

July 30 is the 45th anniversary of Medicare, a milestone for a true American success story that has helped reduce senior poverty by two-thirds.

This year is an especially happy birthday for Medicare, because the new health care reform law makes it easier for seniors to afford to see a doctor, fill a prescription and receive free preventive screenings and tests for serious diseases.

But as the president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I am concerned that too many retirees remain skeptical and unaware of these new benefits. This is the shameful legacy of sustained scare tactics and falsehoods aimed at older Americans during the health care debate.

So forget about Sarah Palin and the “death panels” she warned you about. Here are a few facts about the new health law:

• It lowers drug costs by providing a $250 rebate in 2010 for those in the Medicare “doughnut hole,” and it begins to close this loophole that has been financially devastating for many seniors;
• It ends co-payments and deductibles for annual physicals, mammograms, colonoscopies, and other preventive screenings;
• It helps early retirees age 55-64 better afford and keep their private health insurance through financial assistance programs, and also by prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against those with pre-existing medical conditions;
• It helps middle-class families afford the high costs of long-term care through a new insurance plan known as the CLASS Act; and
• It strengthens the fiscal solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by ending wasteful taxpayer subsidies to private insurance companies who operate Medicare Advantage programs at a cost 14 percent higher than if Medicare directly provided these same services.

The Alliance for Retired Americans has prepared an extensive series of fact sheets on these new benefits. They are available at www.RetiredAmericans.org.

To me, the best way to celebrate Medicare’s 45th birthday is to educate our friends and neighbors on how this new health law can help them live longer, healthier lives.

House Republicans Block Medical Help for 9/11 Heroes -

House Republicans last night blocked a bill that would provide long-term medical care and monitoring for the nearly 60,000 Sept. 11 rescue and recovery workers and community members whose health is at serious risk from their exposure to the contaminated and toxic rubble at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the vote a deep disappointment and said:

Helping the thousands of 9/11 responders and others who are now sick as a result of their exposures at the World Trade Center should not be a partisan issue. But sadly, the majority of House Republicans voted against this bill.

The 255-159 vote in favor of the bill included 12 Republicans. But because the bill was on what is known as the suspension calendar used for non-controversial bills, it needed a two-thirds majority to pass. What’s controversial about helping Sept. 11 heroes who faced a toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos, lead, glass fragments and other debris?

Trumka noted that the cost of the bill was paid for by closing tax loopholes for foreign companies operating in the United States.

It appears that some Republicans and business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, are more concerned with protecting the interests of the foreign based companies who try to avoid paying taxes than helping those who answered the nation’s call on 9/11.

Rep. Michael E. McMahon (D-N.Y.) said the Republican arguments against the bill are “ridiculous and baseless.”

It is utterly unconscionable to me that my Republican colleagues decided to put their own petty, partisan agenda ahead of the solemn moral obligation to help the countless volunteers who were there for us in our nation’s greatest hour of need. Shame on them.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), one of the bill’s chief sponsors, said she expects the House to take up the Sept. 11 medical aid bill when it returns from its August recess under normal rules that require just a simple majority for passage.

Nine long years after the attacks, the living victims of 9/11 are still suffering. We must pass this bill. It is the least we can do as a grateful nation.

Better Access to WARN Act Information Needed for Workers, Communities -

Last year, more than 2.8 million workers were victims of mass layoffs or plant closings that should have fallen under the 1988 WARN Act, which requires employers to give workers and communities advance notice before shutting down. But, as a new AFL-CIO report reveals, the plant closing law “has proven severely flawed.”

Numerous reports have concluded that most layoffs are not subject to WARN Act requirements; few employers act in compliance with the law; and penalties for noncompliance are so lax that they do not act as deterrents.

The AFL-CIO report, “The Public Availability of WARN Notices: Lack of Accessibility and Disclosure Calls for Reform,” examines the difficulty in obtaining WARN notice information that can be vital in planning for the economic and jobs impact of a mass layoff or plant closure.

With access to comprehensive and easy-to-use data bases of past layoffs and plant closures, organizations working to increase employment in states can look for trends in past economic dislocations as they chart their paths forward.

We presented the report to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration today.

Essentially, the WARN Act requires employers with more than 100 full-time workers to provide 60 days advance notice of a plant closing to local and state officials, the workers and their union.

Community leaders and workers who are given this advance notice can then work to mitigate the effects of the job losses by offering retraining programs, providing social services and working to avoid layoffs altogether.

But nearly each state has its own set of rules and regulations on handling WARN notices, which the report describes as a:

flawed jumble of websites, offices, and email accounts, which organizations and individuals must keep track of to obtain information on economic dislocations across the country.

Most states have Rapid Response Teams to assist employers, workers and communities during a mass layoff or plant closing. But the report  found that in many cases when those coordinators tried to push for easier and more WARN notice public disclosure, the coordinators reported they had:

encountered pressure from businesses and politicians when they tried to push for disclosure on websites.

The report examines states with difficult or flawed disclosure rules and states with best practices and makes a series of recommendations to the Labor Department, including:

• Issuing a regulation, training and employment notice or guidance letter requiring states to forward any WARN notices received to the Department of Labor for inclusion in a centralized, publicly accessible database.
• Developing a standardized format for WARN notices and conducting an educational campaign to encourage adoption of the format in the submission of notices.
• Adopting the best practices described within this report for the handling of WARN information within that centralized database.
• Connecting WARN data to other site-specific employment information using unique, site-specific nine-digit identification numbers.

Click here for a copy of the full report.

Coalition Launches Drive to Fight Social Security Cuts -

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Jennifer Angarita contributed to this report.

As Social Security turns 75 years old Aug. 14, the nation’s most successful social program likely will be under attack by the federal budget deficit commission, which, by all accounts, is considering benefits cuts and raising the retirement age.

Today, more than 60 groups, including the AFL-CIO, announced the creation of the coalition Strengthen Social Security…Don’t Cut It. The group is launching a major mobilization to push back the commission’s phony assertions, backed by the Wall Street spin machine, that claim Social Security is a major component of the budget deficit and is teetering on the brink of disaster.

In a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the group outlined plans to build support in Congress to fight benefits cuts and press candidates this election to pledge to fight any move to raise the retirement age or privatization scheme. Says Ed Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

The Strengthen Social Security campaign unites everyone here to improve—not weaken—Social Security. We are united against any cuts in benefits, such as increases in the retirement age, and to any form of privatization of Social Security.

We will stand united if the commission calls for any cuts to Social Security. We are launching a major lobbying campaign for Congress to block their recommendations.

Speaking at the press conference, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that raising the retirement age is:

a benefit cut, plain and simple. It is a cut that is unnecessary and one that Americans can ill-afford.

He also says it unfairly singles out workers in demanding physical occupations,

workers like my father who spent his life in the mines and couldn’t work another day by the time he qualified for Social Security—and those older workers who may no longer be able to find work due to age discrimination.

Social Security benefits are the largest source of retirement income for most retirees. For six of 10 seniors, Social Security represents more than half of their income. In addition, nearly one-half of older unmarried women and widows, and one-third of all beneficiaries, have little other than Social Security and rely on its monthly benefit for 90 percent or more of their retirement income. Says Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW):

Social Security is the mainstay for millions of older women. Every year, a major share of the nearly 24 million women age 62 and older who receive benefits are kept out of poverty because of Social Security. Often that monthly Social Security check is their only income.

A new Gallup Poll out today shows that by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Americans oppose raising the retirement age and, by an even bigger margin, say the best way to strengthen Social Security is to ensure the wealthiest pay their fair share.

Currently, all workers pay the Social Security payroll tax on the first $106,000 of their earnings. Earnings above $106,000 are exempt from the Social Security payroll tax. That means a grocery clerk or warehouse worker pays a bigger chunk of income to Social Security than a hedge fund manager. By a 67 percent to 30 percent margin, the public supports raising the Social Security payroll tax to cover all earnings.

Also taking part in the press conference, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says the deficit commission is trying to

turn Social Security into a scapegoat for the deficit. Social Security is not the  problem.

Social Security—with a $2.6 trillion surplus projected to grow to $4.3 trillion by 2023—is not the cause of the nation’s deficit. Says O’Neill:

The fiscal commission should address the real causes of the deficit—unfunded wars, irresponsible tax breaks for the wealthiest, and an economic crisis caused by financial regulatory failures.

This fall, says Coyle, coalition members will be “demanding clear, unequivocal answers from the candidates on where they stand on Social Security.”

As McEntee warns congressional candidates:

If you break promise from 75 years ago, we will hold you accountable. Keep your hands off our Social Security.

Businessweek Profiles CNA/NNU’s DeMoro -

In a major profile of Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), Bloomberg Businessweek writes:

DeMoro is expert at dishing out political pain with a flourish, a talent that has endeared her to her 86,000 constituents in the California Nurses Association. Under DeMoro’s leadership, the union has recast itself from a special-interest trade group to a consumer and patient advocate that lobbies hard—and volubly—for universal health care and patients’ rights.

“Nurses are the last line of defense for patients,” says DeMoro from a seat in her cactus-filled office at the union’s Oakland headquarters. “This isn’t about just bread-and-butter issues for registered nurses, this is about living in a good and a just society.”

Click here for the full article.

Most recently, CNA/NNU created a crowned and scepter-carrying Queen Meg parody of Meg Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO and California Republican gubernatorial candidate, a sharp-elbowed spoof that DeMoro says is a sharp poke at:

the new corporate aristocracy, they’re used to unilateral control, no democracy.

Judge Blocks Major Parts of Arizona’s Anti-Immigrant Law -

Just hours before Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law was to go into effect, a federal judge today blocked one of its most contentious provisions—the requirement that police stop and question anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” is undocumented.   

The law does not define “reasonable suspicion,” a fact that many opponents say is a carte blanche for racial profiling.

Earlier this month, the federal government filed suit to block Arizona from implementing the new law, which has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights organizations, immigrant groups, unions and the religious community.     

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton also blocked provisions of the law making it a crime to fail to apply for or carry alien registration papers or for “an unauthorized alien to solicit, apply for, or perform work,” and a provision “authorizing the warrantless arrest of a person” if there is reason to believe he or she might be subject to deportation.

Arizona is expected to appeal the temporary injunction ruling, however, and most observers believe the case is eventually going to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a statement the Justice Department said the court “ruled correctly.”

While we understand the frustration of Arizonans with the broken immigration system, a patchwork of state and local policies would seriously disrupt federal immigration enforcement and would ultimately be counterproductive.

When the suit was filed, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

The solution to our broken immigration system must protect all workers and provide a fair path toward citizenship for undocumented workers already living and working in the United States. It must address the unique circumstances faced by undocumented students who were brought to the United States by their parents long ago. It must include an independent commission to determine our society’s genuine need for more workers that does not afford employers a steady stream of exploitable labor. And it must include a mechanism to ensure that employers are held accountable when they break the law.

Health Insurers Mull Secret Donor Election Front Group -

Yesterday, we reported that the nation’s biggest health insurers are “sparing no expense to weaken” the new health care reform law by lobbying the state regulators who are writing new regulations to ensure consumers’ premium dollars are spent on real medical care.

Today, a new report from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) reveals the same insurance giants are discussing forming a $20 million, “nonprofit” front group to influence regulations, sway voters and back industry-friendly candidates.

The companies, according to CPI, are Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., Humana Inc., United HealthCare Inc. and WellPoint Inc. Sources told CPI they:

expect millions of dollars will be pumped into issue advertising in a number of races where candidates sympathetic to health industry concerns have a shot at winning….Overall, the insurers are expected to focus on swaying about two dozen close House contests, says one source.

Keep in mind that during the health care debate there was near unanimous Republican opposition to the bill and the strong insurance reforms the industry is now fighting. Senate and House Republican leaders have marked repeal of health care reform as a top item on their agenda if they win back control of Congress.

During last year’s contentious health care debate in Congress, writes CPI:

these same five insurers—teamed up to channel between $10 million and $20 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to underwrite a negative advertising drive to block the legislation.

The front group under discussion would be what is known as a 501(c)(4) group, which, says CPI:

is legally allowed to engage in lobbying and election-related work. Donors to this type of nonprofit don’t have to be publicly disclosed.

Click here for more on the industry’s drive to weaken new health insurance rules and here for a report from Health Care for America Now!

‘The Horror! The Horror!’—McConnell Stars in AFSCME Guerilla Video -

It’s not quite as scary as looking up and seeing Godzilla lurking over the city skyline, but a two-story-tall Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) staring down from the side of a downtown Louisville office building caused a few surprised gasps Monday night.

In a bit of guerilla theater, AFSCME projected a 30-second silent video reminding passers-by about McConnell’s role as chief architect of the Republican’s obstructionist battle plan. The Party of No’s obstructionist tactics cost more than 2.5 million long-term jobless workers their unemployment insurance (UI) and blocked aid to state and local governments that would save or create nearly a million jobs for teachers, public employees, police officers, firefighters and others.

AFSCME chose Louisville because McConnell was there to speak before the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). The group had just released a report that said without federal aid, more than half the nation’s states will see their budget shortfalls grow by as much as $72 billion next fiscal year, forcing cuts in vital services and jobs to make up for the shortfalls.

McConnell’s words of advice to the state legislators desperately scrambling to keep their budgets afloat? He was opposed to further federal stimulus help for the states and, in a nutshell, told state lawmakers: Get used to it—you all have been spoiled for years by federal funds.

Along with the video that was moved about and was projected on several buildings, AFSCME took out a full-page ad (click here) in the Louisville Courier-Journal telling McConnell, “It’s Time to End the Obstruction,” and highlighting editorials from around the country calling on Congress to approve badly needed federal aid for cash-strapped states.

House OKs Funds to Halt Mine Operators’ Safety End Run -

Mine operators around the country, like Massey Energy, owner of the deadly Upper Big Branch coal mine where 29 miners were killed in April, routinely escape tougher enforcement by appealing serious safety violations to a federal agency that’s bogged down with a 17,000-case backlog.

It can take the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC) more than two years before it finally adjudicates a case. During the appeals process, operators like Massey with troubling safety records avoid being placed under a stricter safety watch because of their pattern of violations.

Last night, as part of an emergency supplemental funding bill, the U.S. House approved $22 million for FMSHRC and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to reduce the backlog of appeals. Says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee:

It is clear that the seemingly indiscriminate appeals of nearly every significant safety violation by some mine operators are undermining important enforcement tools and putting miners’ lives at risk. This additional funding approved today will reverse a backlog that has been allowed to pile up since the Bush administration and is a step in the right direction in holding some of our most dangerous mine operators accountable.

Miller says it takes an average of 30 months to adjudicate a contested violation. In a preliminary report on the Upper Big Branch blast, MSHA says that Massey “contested the majority of its serious violation citations” that could have led to putting the mine under the tougher safety watch before the April 5 explosion.

From 2009 through March this year, MSHA inspectors cited the Upper Big Branch mine for more than 600 safety violations, nearly 40 percent  of which were classified as “significant and substantial.” Also the Massey mine’s rate for repeated serious violations was 19 times higher than the national average, according to the report. But because Massey appealed the serious violations, it was able to avoid the stricter enforcement and inspections that a pattern of violations finding triggers.

The Senate already approved the bill and President Obama will sign it.

Failing to Kill Health Care Reform, Insurers Now Fight to Weaken It -

After spending tens of millions of dollars trying to kill the new health care reform law, the nation’s big health insurance companies now, says Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), are:

sparing no expense to weaken this new law and the protection it promises to America’s consumers.

According to a new report by the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN), big insurers are trying to gut proposed new rules that require they spend a certain amount of premium dollars on actual medical care, not wasteful administration, marketing or executive pay and bonuses.

The medical care cost benchmark under the Affordable Health Care for America Act is known as the medical-loss ratio (MLR). It is set at a minimum of 80 percent of premiums for individual and small employer plans and 85 percent of premiums for large employer plans. Insurers that fail to meet those MLRs must rebate the difference to enrollees.

The new MLR rules are being established by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which is made up of insurance regulators from the states. According to the HCAN report, the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and their member insurers:

want to redefine MLRs by pressuring the NAIC to give insurers vast discretion over what expenses they may classify as clinical and administrative costs. Already, Wellpoint Inc., the nation’s largest private health insurer by enrollment, has reclassified $500 million in administrative costs as medical expenses.

Rockefeller says the insurance industry is “furiously lobbying” the NAIC to write the new rules in a way that will:

allow them to do business as they did before the passage of health reform. The resources health insurance companies are throwing into the effort to weaken the medical loss ratio appear almost endless.

On HCAN’s The Now! Blog, HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome writes:

The definition of “medical care” is at the core of this fight….So they want to change the definition of “medical care” to include things that aren’t medical care and that have never been considered as such. And the insurance companies are shameless in just how far they will go. They really are trying to have “underwriting,” the process by which sick people are weeded out of eligibility for coverage, defined as a medical expense! Along with claims processing, call centers and other expenses that aren’t about the actual delivery of care.

According to the report, if the new law had been on the books in 2009, the six largest for-profit health insurance companies would have been required to refund $1.9 billion for that year alone. That would have represented only a fraction of their massive profits. The top five for-profit health insurers alone recorded $12.2 billion in profits in 2009.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who helped write the medical cost requirements into the bill, says health care reform:

will bring coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, which will bring lots of new business to private insurers. We need strong regulations for medical-loss ratios so Americans can be confident that they’re getting value for their premium dollars.

BP’s Hayward Follows Wall Street’s ‘Fail Big, Win Big’ Pattern -

BP CEO got a golden parachute. These Gulf pelicans weren’t so lucky.

When most of us screw up big time, we pay for it, instead of getting paid for it. If it was the other way around, I’d be a rich man, sort of like ousted BP CEO Tony Hayward who is finally getting his life back. He is also the latest example of what seems to be the new corporate game of “fail big, win big.”

Hayward, who whined about the time and toll the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster was taking on his life, is walking away with a tidy severance check of $1.6 million, a pension of more than $16 million and a chance to cash in on BP stocks that, if the company’s share price recovers from its recent battering, could mean millions more, according to news reports.

Hayward’s platinum parachute is nowhere near the biggest prize for recent corporate failures. Remember the Big Banks—who can really forget—that blew up the nation’s economy and racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in losses and even more in jobs destroyed and lives shattered?

Last week, a new report found that at the depths of the financial meltdown in late 2008, a group of 17 banks that pocketed money from the Bush Big Bank Bailout fund paid out more than $1.6 billion in unmerited and undeserved bonuses to the executives, hedge fund managers and traders who were at the controls when the economy crashed and burned.

The report by Kenneth Feinberg, appointed by the Obama administration to examine executive pay at firms that received bailout funds, cited Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, AIG and several others for the lavish bonuses.

The Feinberg report follows last year’s findings by  New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that nine of the “too big to fail” banks and institutions that posted $81 billion in 2008 losses before going on the federal bailout dole, paid out $1 million-plus 2008 bonuses to more than 5,000 of their traders and bankers. Talk about pay for non-performance.

If you’re a Big Oil CEO, Big Bank exec, or corporate chief who screws up major big time, eh, don’t worry. No problem. No consequences. Here’s a little something to get you through the hard times.

But for the rest of us, it’s “pack up your things and don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.”