Washington among 31 states AFL-CIO
will pursue health care legislation
The Fair Share Health
Care campaign is
modeled on a bill the
Maryland Legislature
approved.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Giving up on pro-worker health care ac-
tion from Congress, the AFL-CIO on
Jan. 5 launched a campaign for state-
by-state laws in 31 states —including
Washington — requiring large compa-
nies to provide health care for workers,
or to pay the state to provide health care
for the uninsured.
The Fair Share Health Care cam-
paign is modeled on a bill the Maryland
Legislature approved last year. It man-
dated all companies with more than
10,000 workers pay 8 percent of payroll
costs for health care, or contribute the
difference between what they do pay
and that figure to a state fund for the
uninsured.
The AFL-CIO-sponsored legislation
would have different figures for differ-
ent states.
The only big Maryland firm that
flunked was Wal-Mart, and it urged Re-
publican Gov. Robert Ehrlich to veto
the bill, which he did. On Jan. 13, 2006,
the Maryland House voted 88-60 in fa-
vor of overriding the veto.
National AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney said the drive is aimed at Wal-
Mart and other large firms that do not
cover their workers’ health insurance.
“It’s nothing short of immoral that
big, rich companies are shirking their
responsibilities to their employees.
We’re talking about mothers and fathers
who are pushed to tears because they
can’t take their children to the doctor.
And it’s happening every day,”
Sweeney said.
Wal-Mart and its ilk force other
companies that cover workers, state tax-
payers and workers themselves to pick
up the costs of the uninsured — a form
of cost-shifting which Sweeney called
“freeloading off workers, taxpayers and
smaller businesses.”
Meanwhile, unions find company at-
tempts to cut back health care coverage,
or transfer its costs to workers, are the
big battles in bargaining for the last sev-
eral years, Sweeney aide Gerald Shea
said. As a result, many workers forgo
raises in order to retain health care cov-
erage, or see health care eat up their
raises and pay, he added.
The federation aims to change that
scene through its legislative campaign,
which will involve phone banks, lobby-
ing state lawmakers and other pressure.
If lawmakers refuse to consider a fair
share bill, the AFL-CIO and its mem-
ber unions, who have spent a year in
drafting a model bill and planning, will
hold them accountable at the polls,
Initially the drive will be in Wash-
ington — where a broader initiative
died in the Legislature last year — Con-
necticut, Iowa, Michigan, Georgia and
Wisconsin.
The number of people without
health insurance continues to climb —
from 41 million in 2000 to 46 million
in 2004, according to government sta-
tistics — at the same time, more com-
panies are cutting back employer-based
health coverage. In 2000, 69 percent of
firms offered health coverage to work-
ers, but in 2005 that percentage dropped
to just 60 percent. In fact, more than a
quarter of all firms with more than 500
employees don’t offer employer-based
health insurance for workers and their
families, according to a study by the
Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan
private foundation that supports inde-
pendent research into health care issues.
Local Motion
December 2005
Union election activity in Oregon and SW Washington,
according to the National Labor Relations Board
and the Oregon Employment Relations Board
Elections held
Company
Date
Union
Results:
Union
No
Union
20
23
Location
First Student
12/14 ATU Local 757
Molalla
Aacres Allvest
12/16 IUSPFP vs. UGSO 38
Vancouver
Lile International
12/22 Teamsters Local 162
Tualatin
7
5
1 26
9
Elections requested
Company
Union
Location
# of employees
Safeway (Starbucks kiosk)
United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555
The Dalles
5
McMinnville
Richmond Baking
11
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, Grain Millers Local 114
Mike Quevedo, Jr.
President, Southern California District Council of Laborers
Co-Chairman, Laborers Trust Funds for Southern California
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JANUARY 20, 2006
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
©2005 Union Bank of California, N.A. Member FDIC
PAGE 5