AFL-CIO's Trumka warns Dems not to take workers for granted

[IndianaGreen]

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka spoke at the National Press Club a few minutes ago and slammed the Senate bill and its tax on high-end insurance plans and predicted an electoral catastrophe for Democrats, circa 1994, should the party take working people for granted.

January 11, 2010

Trumka warns Dems not to take workers for granted

Initiatives should be rooted in a crucial alliance of the middle class and the poor. But today, as I speak to you, something different is happening with health care.

On the one hand we have the House bill, which asks the small part of our country that has prospered in the last decade—the richest of the rich—to pay a little bit more in taxes so that most Americans can have health insurance. And the House bill reins in the power of health insurers and employers by having an employer mandate and a strong public option.

But thanks to the Senate rules, the appalling irresponsibility of the Senate Republicans and the power of the wealthy among some Democrats, the Senate bill instead drives a wedge between the middle class and the poor. The bill rightly seeks to ensure that most Americans have health insurance. But instead of taxing the rich, the Senate bill taxes the middle class by taxing workers’ health plans—not just union members’ health care; most of the 31 million insured employees who would be hit by the excise tax are not union members.

The tax on benefits in the Senate bill pits working Americans who need health care for their families against working Americans struggling to keep health care for their families. This is a policy designed to benefit elites—in this case, insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and irresponsible employers, at the expense of the broader public. It’s the same tragic pattern that got us where we are today, and I can assure you the labor movement is fighting with everything we’ve got to win health care reform that is worthy of the support of working men and women.

<snip>

Let me be even blunter. In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action on jobs, who talked about reining in corporate greed and who promised health care reform. Instead, we got NAFTA, an emboldened Wall Street – and not much more. We swallowed our disappointment and worked to preserve a Democratic majority in 1994 because we knew what the alternative was. But there was no way to persuade enough working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn’t tell the difference between the two parties. Politicians who think that working people have it too good – too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare, too much power on the job – are inviting a repeat of 1994.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0110/Trumka_warns_Dems_not_to_take_workers_for_granted.html?showall

[nosmokes]

1. He's a day late and a dolllar or a billion or two short I think...

[IndianaGreen]

2. I noticed the White House scheduled the meeting with AFL-CIO late enough in the day

so as to miss the evening news. At least they scheduled it for a Monday and not a Friday.

INVITED: Here's the full list of guests expected at the White House powwow with Big Labor Monday:

Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO
Anna Burger, Change to Win
Dennis Van Roekel, NEA
Leo Gerard, Steelworkers
Joe Hansen, UFCW
Ed Hill, IBEW
Jim Hoffa, Teamsters
Randi Weingarten, AFT
Andy Stern, SEIU
Terry O'Sullivan, LIUNA
Gerry McEntee, AFSCME
Larry Cohen, CWA

UAW's Ron Gettelfinger was also invited but unable to attend due to a commitment at the Detroit Auto Show, where he led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and about a dozen lawmakers around the show floor. -- Kendra Marr (UPDATED 3:46 p.m.)

http://www.politico.com/politico44/

[madrchsod]

3. we have`t forgotten what has happened

[Little Star]

4. Next time the unions should get a commitment in writing before

they back anyone. I fully support unions but they screwed up or got screwed on HCR. They need to be more careful with their support.

[county worker]

5. Like the rest of us, they were promised something and the administration and Congress did not

deliver.

I would not blame the victim here!

[Little Star]

6. Not blaming them just saying they need a much firmer

commitment before they get screwed again.

[maryf]

7. Sad its a tax on the middle class

that got Trumka fired up, not the mandates or the deaths as much, Still its something so K&R anyway!

[IndianaGreen]

8. Update: White House: Obama Has 'Productive' Meeting With Labor Leaders

Remember the Cold War when the US and USSR would issue joint statement about productive discussions, meaning that there were unresolved disagreements between the parties?

Here we go again:

White House: Obama Has 'Productive' Meeting With Labor Leaders

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The White House called President Barack Obama's meeting with labor leaders "productive," but didn't indicate if the president had been swayed by union opposition to taxing high-cost health insurance plans.

"The president and labor leaders had an exchange of views and had a productive discussion about their shared commitment to health reform that will lower health costs for American workers and their families, protect them from unfair insurance company practices, and enable employers to create jobs and raise wages," an administration official said.

Obama met with union officials, who oppose a Senate plan to tax family health plans worth more than $23,000, late Monday. The session, however, was closed to reporters, and the labor leaders didn't address the media at the White House.

The White House hasn't signaled if Obama would sign health-care legislation that doesn't include the tax on so-called "Cadillac" insurance plans.

"He supported the Senate bill and that provision was in that bill for what it does in terms of changing the direction of health-care costs," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier Monday. "Obviously, the president has a position, and I think we'll talk to them about why he sees this as something that's important in the bill."

Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, urged lawmakers in a speech Monday to back an excise tax on the rich rather than the Senate's proposed tax. Organized labor's preferred approach--also backed by House Democrats--is contained in the House version of the health-care bill, which must be merged with the bill that passed the Senate last month.

Labor unions oppose the payment plan in the Senate bill because they say many of their members, who have traded higher wages for more comprehensive benefits packages, would be penalized by it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100111-715734.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

It is significant that the AFL-CIO has not issued a statement. Not yet anyway!