Bachmann's Bright Idea for Economic Growth: Roll Back Health and Safety Regulations

In her latest crusade against government “overregulation,” GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann paid a visit to a non-union meat packing plant in Iowa to talk about the evils of health and safety standards in the food industry. Ironically, she did not appear to be wearing a hair net or head covering at the time.

"We want to have safety," she told the press while strolling through slabs of beef. "But we also want to have common sense."

We couldn’t agree more, but we are a little baffled as to what Bachmann’s definition of common sense must be.

UFCW workers have been putting food on America’s tables for decades and we’re proud of the work we do. There is a good chance the beef you ate for dinner last night came from a cow slaughtered by a UFCW member. That’s why we’re not ok with the idea of it being acceptable to serve up tasty meats laced with fecal matter, deadly bacteria, hair, fingers, or any other non-cow, non-pig, non-bird body parts.

Bachmann’s publicity stunt comes a week after the Agriculture Department announced wider testing for E. coli in meat. Instead of testing for one strand of the bacteria, they’ll now be testing for seven, which they say will help officials identify more foodborne illnesses.

*Photo not intended as fact

Is Bachmann honestly arguing that our health and safety standards, the ones we’ve been working so hard on since The Jungle, are a burden on the poor companies forced to make sure the meat they are selling isn’t hazardous to human health?

What about the 3000 people who die each year from foodborne illnesses? Or the 1 in 6 the CDC reports get sick every year?

In Bachmann’s radical libertarian utopia, packing houses must feel called upon to voluntarily test their products out of altruistic love and respect for the consumer. If we are going to live in reality, we need laws and regulations to manage the pressure to put profits over public safety.

UFCW Members Demonstrate Gold Power in Lead-Up to Nov 2

Win UFCW Gear-- Tell Us Your Story!

You can win UFCW gear if you share your political action story and it's featured in our next issue of Working America.

It’s been an incredible two years since the last election cycle went into full swing and UFCW members helped to elect the nation’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. We’ve had some victories—health care, Hilda Solis—and some frustrations, too. And in-between, hundreds of thousands of UFCW members have participated in politics and policy issues like never before.

That’s why we want to hear YOUR story! Did you march on Washington for health care last June? Did you attend a rally in support of EFCA, or for good jobs in your community? Did you canvass for Joe Sestak or Bill Halter, or write a letter to your editor about Wall Street's greed or any other issue? Let us know! Tell us what you did and why, in a sentence or two, or a few paragraphs if you feel like it. Then send it to vote@ufcw.org. Send us pictures, too, if you have some. We love pictures! If your story is selected, we may feature it in Working America magazine or on one of our websites.

Thanks for all you do. This fall, let’s continue to fight for candidates who’ll fight for working families.

Pop Quiz

A historic election just took place - but what does that really mean? Civics is the study of citizenship and government, and some basic knowledge is necessary for citizens of this great democracy. Know where your rights came from, like the right to form a union? Here are 2 ways to test your knowledge:

1. American Labor History Quiz! What do you know about unions and the history we share? What is the labor movement? Test it out, comment with your scores!
2. Civic Literacy On average, Americans taking this quiz scored only 49%. Can you do better? Comment with your score.


Should schools be doing more to teach us our shared heritage?

UFCW Asks: Can We Change?

UFCW members are speaking out in a new ad supporting Barack Obama for President. The ad is running across the state of Ohio and Texas in preparation for the Tuesday primary contest.


What do you think we can achieve this November? What do you want to see change in America?

For more information on the issues that matter to workers, check
out www.ufcwvote.org.

UFCW Endorses Obama

It's official--the UFCW is endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president in 2008!

In a statement to the press, Joe Hansen, president of UFCW International, had the following to say about the endorsement:

"UFCW members are energized to seize [the opportunity this election] to change America and restore the American Dream for workers and their families....We are the largest union of young workers with more than forty percent of our members under the age of thirty. Senator Obama’s message of changing hope into reality has inspired our members, particularly our young members, across the country.

We have the utmost respect for Senator Clinton and her tireless efforts on behalf of working people. And while both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have a vision to change America, we believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to build a movement to unite our country that will deliver the type of change that is needed – for good jobs, affordable health care, retirement security and worker safety."

Click here for the full press release

Are You A "Boomerang"?

Some scientists have labeled folks born between 1977 – 1989 as A boomerang is a device that when launched will return to its place of origin, the “Boomerang Generation,” is then a term to a describe a particular group of people born between 1977-1989 who much like a noting that, much like the Australian toy, we boomerang leave home for while and come right back. , in some cases many do not even leave home at all. Often times what happens is that individuals leave home for periods of time, whether it is for college or to simply assert their independence and then find out that the “real world” is much harsher than what they thought it was, soon after they find themselves back at home, hence the term boomerang.Social Scientists have examined this “boomerang generation” and often contrast it to previous generations which were considered more successful in asserting their independence sooner. Some critics have gone as far as labeling this generation as spoiled or coddled. These critics also express concerns regarding the negative implications that this trend can have on the financial and social independence of these individuals.

Is our generation really Is our generation really as spoiled as these sociologists claim? Just “mommy’s boys” and “daddy’s girls”? What’s really going on?

While I do agree that social critics have legitimate concerns, and that there are differences between this generation and previous generations, I do not agree with the assertion that this generation is spoiled. Instead I would like to point out that the actual root of the issue lies in transforming economic and political realities.

young people face a where Today’s “new economy” means many well paying, unionized jobs have been outsourced, leaving behind a growing service sector economy that consists of occupations like social services, insurance, retail and entertainment. Unfortunately, this section of the economy is largely non-union and many of these jobs, which are the major occupations of younger workers, simply cannot pay the bills.

In 2000, The Wall Street Journal reported that since 1974 real wages for an average individual with a high school diploma declined 20%. To make matters even worse in 2006, The New York Times reported that for two consecutive years, 2004 and 2005, real wages fell 0.8 percent each year.

There also seems to be a correlation wIt’s not coincidence that real wages are declining with the ith declining real wages and the relative decline of labor unions’s power. , employees bargaining power, and weakened Federal worker protections, all of which have political implications as certain Presidential administrations and politicians have been more hostile to labor unions and workers rights. Arandrajit Dube, a research economist at the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research also echo’s this sentiment and asserts that “Falling real wages reflect workers weakened bargaining position.”

What do we have? A new economy, a lack of healthcare, Tying these economic and political realities of the new economy, globalization, outsourcing, declining real wages, weakening Federal worker protections and hostility from certain Bush-appointed politicians toward labor unions and workers rights. iIt’ is easy to see that young people today face an uphill battle when leaving home. more complex world than previous generations with different sets of challenges. With odds seemingly stacked against young workers in this new economy it becomes no wonder why we have a “boomerang generation”. Because oThe odds are stacked against us, so we have to it is necessary for us to work together, demonstrate solidarity, and become proactive in the political process.

Not being able to move out of mom's, piled with student debt and not being able to pay the bills isn't about being spoiled; it's happening because of declining wages. Help reverse this trend.

SCHIP: Hope for children endangered by President Bush

Every child in the United States should have access to adequate health care, regardless of whether or not their parents are fortunate enough to have employer-provided insurance or are wealthy enough to purchase private insurance. This commonsense statement is supported by a significant majority of Americans, cutting across party and ideological lines—Americans believe that all children should have health care coverage.

Unfortunately such popular wisdom is lost on President Bush who, on October 3rd vetoed a bipartisan measure that would have extended health care to some 3.8 million uninsured children, under the State Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Bush was able to muster enough support for his out-of-touch position within the US House, which failed, by thirteen votes, to override his veto.

Since falling short in their attempt to overcome Bush’s veto members of Congress from both parties have been working to craft a new SCHIP expansion measure (HR 3963). The new SCHIP bill seeks to find common ground with Republican opponents of the vetoed measure and to answer criticisms from the administration, while still promising a substantial increase in the number of children covered by the program.

Despite these adjustments the Bush Administration and the Republican leaders in Congress have remained steadfast in their opposition to SCHIP expansion and another Bush veto is likely.

The health of American children is too important to play politics with. Urge your member of Congress to support the expansion of SCHIP!

Keep the pressure on Bush, and build the UFCW’s power by becoming a Volunteer in Politics Today!

Dream of College?

On October 24th, the Senate failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to protect the dreams of hard working students. The DREAM Act would have allowed children of immigrants who have grown up in the United States the opportunity to apply for citizenship if they graduate from high school and complete two years of college or military service. Despite the support of 52 senators, the failure to advance the DREAM Act punishes hardworking students. It is a sad day when America sends a message to young people that their talents and service are unwanted.

Each year, tens of thousands of high performing children of immigrants who were raised in the United States—including honor role students, star athletes, and aspiring teachers, doctors, lawyers and U.S. soldiers—graduate from high school. Despite their academic achievements, they are effectively barred from contributing fully to our communities.

America cannot afford to turn its back on an educated class of promising students who have demonstrated a commitment to hard work and a strong desire to be upstanding members of our society. Our current immigration policy has real human costs, and the UFCW will continue to fight for immigration reform that ensures that America’s workers and their children are able to improve their lives and realize the American Dream. You can help. Sign up to be a UFCW Volunteer in Politics today.

To Have or Have-Not

Washington Post op-ed columnist Harold Meyerson recently took a look at what's going on with the economy, and here's what he found:

Median family income over the past quarter-century has stagnated. The economic rewards from increased productivity, which went to working-class as well as wealthy Americans from the 1940s to the '70s, now go exclusively to the rich. The manufacturing jobs that anchored our prosperity were offshored, automated or deunionized; lower-paying service-sector jobs took their place.

In his article, Meyerson goes on to talk about how the country has become divided into the "haves" and the "have-nots". What kind of moral values allow our country to be split into two nations, one of riches and one of poverty? We've seen this transition: stagnant wages, skyrocketing health care costs, and disappearing retirement savings are putting a squeeze on America's middle class.

Despite record corporate profits, working people are not sharing in the nation's prosperity. The wealthy are rewarded with tax cut after tax cut while working families are left to fend for themselves - and, according to a recent survey conducted for Change to Win, America's workers know it.

How can we turn this country around so that everyone can have a fair piece of the pie?

Read the full Washington Post article here.

Young Voters Surge

Politics - for years, young people didn't turn out to vote during elections, because they thought it didn't matter. But our generation is changing things. In the 2004, 49% of those 18-29 voted and in the midterm 2006 election, youth voter turn out increased again.

After a decline in participation in politics after the Vietnam War, it seems young people are now motivated than ever to be apart of the big picture. For 2008, young voters are talking "surge" in voting, that is. The Boston Globe has identified youth voters as a force in the '08 race.

Many young folks 18 to 24 years old say that the terrorist attacks on the U.S., and our nation's response to it, sparked their interest in politics. What’s driving you to vote this year or in 2008? The war? A lack of affordable health care? Do you think young people can make a difference in this election?

To make sure your elected officials hear your voice everyday - not just election day, sign up to be a UFCW Volunteer In Politics.