Northwest labor press., October 21, 2011, Image 1

Inside
Official
Meeting Notices
See
Page 6
Volume 112
Number 20
October 21, 2011
Portland
Occupy Portland: 10,000 march to protest Wall Street misrule
The Occupy Wall Street protest arrived in Portland Oct. 6, as 10,000 demonstrators marched
through the streets of downtown before filling Pioneer Courthouse Square elbow-to-elbow to
protest Wall Street dominance of politics and the economy.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
When workers in 1936 sat down at a GM plant
in Flint, Michigan, they didn’t know their moment
was a turning point. In the same way, it’s too soon
to tell if Zucotti Park, Manhattan, is a turning point.
But the Occupy Wall Street movement which be-
gan there is already having an impact. Six weeks
ago, debt limit debates and Republican presiden-
tial talking points dominated the news. Now, Wall
Street corruption, corporate money in politics, and
the profound concentration of wealth have been at
the top of the news agenda for weeks.
In an Oct. 9-10 poll by Time magazine, 54 per-
cent of Americans had a favorable opinion of the
Occupy Wall Street protests, while just 23 percent
had an unfavorable opinion, and 23 percent no
opinion. [By contrast, 27 percent said they had a
favorable opinion toward the Tea Party.] And even
larger percentages agreed with the message of the
Occupy Wall Street protests. Of the 79 percent of
respondents who said they were aware of the
protests, 86 percent agreed that Wall Street has too
much influence in Washington; 79 percent agreed
that the gap between rich and poor has grown too
large; 71 percent agree that financial executives are
responsible for the 2008 meltdown and should be
prosecuted; and 68 percent said the rich should pay
more taxes.
For organized labor — which has always fo-
cused on economic justice — it’s a moment of vin-
dication, and of excitement over the movement’s
potential.
Around the country, unionists at every level of
the labor movement are coming out to support the
Occupy demonstrations and encampments.
Though protesters express it in different ways, their
message is clear: Wall Street is making life worse
for the 99 percent of Americans who aren’t part of
the economic elite. Many unionists have been mak-
ing that point since the 2008 financial crash and
been largely ignored, but larger numbers, and the
ongoing nature of the “occupation,” are making
Occupy Wall Street impossible to ignore.
Occupy Wall Street started with a July 13 call by
the magazine Adbusters for 20,000 people to
“flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens,
peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a
few months.” A group of activists in New York City
took up the call, and the protest began on Sept. 17
with 1,000 people marching to protest Wall Street
dominance of politics and the economy. As many
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Family health insurance coverage tops $15,000 a year
Unionized firms
are more likely to
provide health
benefits
If you think health insurance premi-
ums are still out of control, you’d be
right. Employer-sponsored family
health coverage is now $15,073 a year
on average — according to the latest
annual survey by the Kaiser Family
Foundation and the Health Research &
Educational Trust. That’s more than a
full-time worker at the federal mini-
mum wage makes in a year. It’s also a
9 percent increase over 2010 — nearly
triple the rate of general inflation (3.2
percent), and quadruple the increase in
workers’ wages (2.1 percent.)
Meanwhile, employee-only health
coverage is now $5,429 a year on aver-
age, an 8 percent increase over 2010.
The survey found that about 60 per-
cent of the employers offer health ben-
efits to their workers.
On average, covered workers con-
tribute 18 percent of the premium for
employee-only coverage, and 28 per-
cent of the premium for family cover-
age, about the same as in 2010. That
means covered workers pay $921 ($77
a month) on average toward single
coverage and $4,129 ($344 a month)
for family coverage.
Premiums for employer-sponsored
family health insurance have risen 113
percent since 2001, while workers
wages have risen just 34 percent and
the overall cost-of-living has risen 27
percent. Workers’ premium contribu-
tions are increasing too. Of the $15,073
total annual cost of employer-provided
family health coverage, workers con-
tributed $4,129 on average, and em-
ployers contributed $10,944.
Under the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act — the package of
federal health insurance reforms
passed in 2010 — young adults up to
age 26 who don’t have employer cov-
erage on their own are eligible to be
covered as dependents on their parents’
plan. An estimated 2.3 million adult
children have been added to policies
since that provision took effect. That
may account for part of the 9 percent
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