UFCW President Joe Hansen on President Obama's Plan to Put Americans Back to Work

Last night, President Hansen released the following statement in support of President Obama's jobs plan:

“President Obama’s plan for job creation, including a private fund to rebuild our roads and schools, a tax cut for companies that hire workers and help for the long-term unemployed, is a good start. The nation’s job crisis demands leadership from President Obama, but he cannot revive the economy alone. Bold leadership is also needed from Republicans in Congress and the business community in order to create jobs that can support a family and rebuild the middle class.

 “We will never win the future by turning a blind eye to the devastating impact of unemployment and underemployment on our country. It is time for Republicans in Congress to put our country ahead of politics and support the president’s plan to put Americans back to work. It is also time for America’s business leaders to make a patriotic commitment to invest in good jobs in America and provide their employees with decent wages and benefits with the end goal of giving the middle class the purchasing power it needs to revive the economy.

 “The wasted economic potential of the millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed is a national tragedy. But the tragedy goes deeper than statistics alone. In all this turmoil, many Americans believe they will never achieve the American dream of owning a home, sending their children to college or retiring comfortably. If Republicans in Congress and America’s business leaders continue to put corporate profits ahead of job creation, our country will never fully recover from this downward economic spiral.”

The Senate Free-Rider Provision or: How in trying to reform health care we could end up with a part-time America

Senate, what on earth is up with the Free-Rider provision in the health care bill?

In the spirit of an encouraging friend offering constructive criticism on decisions that could lead to potentially harmful and unintended consequences (like the time in college when my roommate wanted to sink her life-savings into an industrial dump truck on eBay), we think it is about time to sit down, put the kettle on, and have a heart-to-heart.

In a nutshell, the Free-Rider provision states that employers who don’t offer good coverage pay a fine if their workers qualify for subsidies to buy coverage in the insurance exchange.

Now for the problems:

1. Companies don’t have to pay fines for part-time workers
2. Companies don’t have to pay fines for workers eligible for Medicaid
3. Companies only have to pay a fine for workers receiving subsidies to buy coverage the insurance exchange.
4. The standard for “good coverage” that an employer must offer to avoid paying fines is ridiculously low.

Problem #1: Say you are the owner of Spend-A-Lot Stores and you need to cut costs. Health care is a huge expenditure for you, but you find that if you shift more workers to part-time, you can avoid having to pay for good benefits without having to pay fines. Your arch-nemesis, Fantabulousamazing, Inc. believes in investing in its workers and does offer good health plans. Now responsible Fantabulousamazing is at a disadvantage to your unscrupulous business practices, thus defeating the entire purpose of the provision.

Not only that, but workers in the community who were barely getting by on the wages at Spend-A-Lot now can’t get enough hours to pay the bills and are stuck without access to health care.

Problem #2: If workers qualify for Medicaid, Spend-A-Lot doesn’t have to pay fines for not providing good coverage because the workers won’t be buying insurance in the exchange.

Increase the number of workers on Medicaid = decrease health care costs = keep wages low enough for workers to qualify = further erode the middle class jobs offered by Spend-A-Lot.

Problem #3: By hiring workers who would not qualify for subsidies on the exchange, Spend-A-Lot can reduce the amount of fines incurred by not offering quality health coverage.

Workers not eligible for Medicaid who also do not qualify for subsidies would include those who are covered under their parents plans, older workers eligible for Medicare, and married workers whose spouses offer adequate health plans.

Center for American Progress sums it up pretty well:

Thus, counterintuitively, a “free rider” provision would penalize—and thus disincentivize—employers from hiring workers eligible for premium subsidies: low- and moderate-income individuals. This is a great concern for single mothers in particular, who could be penalized as less attractive hires.

Problem #4: If Spend-A-Lot offers really terrible coverage to workers, the definition of adequate coverage in the provision is so loose that a large share of the burden for health care costs can still remain on the workers while Spend-A-Lot doesn’t have to pay any fines at all. Now workers are left unable to qualify in the exchange and with coverage that will stick them with huge medical bills that they can’t afford.

On Tuesday, we released a report examining the impact of the provision on Walmart workers. Granted, we are not fans of Walmart in general because of its history of poor behavior when it comes to workers, but it also happens to be the largest private employer in the U.S.

The results? To maximize profits, the provision creates the incentive for Walmart to shift to part-time and to keep wages low and workers dependent on public programs. If a bad actor as big as Walmart can slip through the loopholes, what does that say about the bill’s ability to bring down health costs nationwide?

Hundreds Of Union Members To March In 56th Inaugural Parade

From Change To Win In Washington, DC:

January 20th is going to be an historic day!

Oh, you think, I knew that. That’s when we’re going to be swearing in our first-ever African-American President of the United States!

That’s true, but it’s not the only reason why Tuesday will be historic.

What else is happening? For the first time in living memory, members of America’s labor movement have been asked to march in the official Inaugural Parade, that’s what.

Representing America’s workers will be 265 union members from across Change to Win, the AFL-CIO, and the National Education Association (NEA), along with a 17-by-24 foot float built entirely by union workers and driven by a Teamster. The float will feature the “faces of labor” — a tribute every hard-working man and woman who gets up every day and goes to work. (In the photo above, you can see the faces as they wait to be mounted on the float.)

January 20 will be the start of a new era for American workers, so it’s fitting that hundreds of them will be marching alongside President-Elect Barack Obama to mark the occasion!

Outta the Way, Young Whippersnapper!

Young workers have a new challenge in the workplace: Old People.

Actually, it's more experienced workers.

As the recession deepens, unemployment among teenagers is as high as its been in over 60 years. Retirees, uable to live on thier savings along with college grads, many of whom can't find employment in their fields, have both started taking suplimental jobs in the service industry. Jobs that historically have been the starting point for younger workers. Economist Andrew Sum calls it the "Bump-down" effect.

An article on youth employment in the Las Vegas Sun paints a pretty grim picture:

Studies show minorities and teens from low-income families are disproportionately affected, and Sum predicts the trend, if allowed to continue, will create a new underclass of American youth.

Yikes. A generation of workers without jobs. What's needed to ensure that younger workers are getting the skills and experience needed for future work? What jobs are teens better suited for than college grads or retirees? Share your ideas here!

Your New Job!

How Are You Working For Change?

Registering voters. Volunteering at food banks. Phone banking for candidates. Organizing workers and improving working conditions. Raising money to fund research for important cures.

These are just a few of the things young workers are doing throughout the nation to make a differnce. With health care costs out of control, the economy a mess, rapidly rising gas prices, escalating college costs, the mortgage crisis, a broken immigration system...our nation needs all the help it can get.

This is a year for change if there ever was one. And hundreds of thousands of UFCW members will be working hard to send Barack Obama to the White House to make that change real.

But change doesn't start with the President or the people in Washington, as Senator Obama points out in his speeches.

Change starts with us. We can make a difference. We can help UFCW members, workers, and fellow Americans around the nation in times of trouble. We can oppose greedy CEOs and corporations, and fight for better wages, affordable, quality health care for all, improved working conditions, and the dignity of a secure retirement.

We can speak together and become more powerful. We can stick together and make our voices heard--and we can shout out for a real shot at the American Dream for each and every person in this country.

We can all be leaders. Young workers can and will lead the way to the change we need today.

How are you working for change? Tell us what you're doing to make this country a better place.

Barack Obama: The American Dream Candidate

Today, Change To Win released the latest in an ongoing series of American Dream Surveys, tracking how America's workers see the future of the American Dream.

If you want the raw data, here's a link to the survey topline in PDF format. But if you just want an executive summary, here's a few of the most interesting findings...

More voters than ever think the American Dream is at risk: In September 2007, 70% of those we surveyed agreed with this sentiment; today, that figure is up to 74%.

More voters than ever think the current administration's policies have made things worse: Back in September, 57% of respondents said that the Bush Administration's policies had made the American Dream harder to achieve; today that figure is up to 65% -- nearly two out of three.

Voters see Barack Obama as the candidate of the American Dream: in a three-way race with Hillary Clinton and John McCain, a plurality of respondents (31%) say that Barack Obama has the best vision for restoring the American Dream. Strikingly, John McCain comes in second in the three-way matchup, with 22%; Clinton trails with 18%.

Voters see Barack Obama as the candidate least influenced by corporations and CEOs: In a two-way matchup between McCain and Obama, 39% of respondents describe McCain as more influenced by big business, compared to just 19% for Obama. When Obama is replaced by Clinton in the matchup, voters are closely divided, with 33% saying Clinton is more influenced by big business compared to 30% for McCain.

For a more detailed summary, here's a memo laying out the survey's key findings, also in PDF format.