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Stakes are High for Workers In Congressional Elections
The end of family and medical leave, limits on compensation for over-time hours, and a national “right-to-work” bill to weaken the ability of unions to represent workers.
These are just a handful of measures being pushed by anti-worker members of Congress — a voting block that could get its way if workers and their families don’t make their voices heard Nov. 7.
Working families have been making a comeback at the polls in the last four years, cutting into the conservative, pro-business majority that came with the “Gingrich revolution” in 1994. The November election — when voters will elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 34 members of the Senate — is critical to deciding whether the working family agenda moves forward, or takes a fatal step backwards.
Following is a summary of key issues for working families.
Labor Issues
A Republican Congress and a Bush White House would bring a quick end to the Family and Medical Leave Act, which Congressional Democrats and the Clinton-Gore administration passed over bitter opposition. Because of the act, thousands of people across the country have been able to leave their jobs without fear of losing them in order to care for ailing family members. Republicans have proposed overturning it.
Another proposal introduced in the last Congress would have required employees to work 160 hours in a four-week period before overtime rates would be paid. Other legislation is designed to prevent union members from fully participating in the political process.
Electing representatives who advocate for labor and working families would not only prevent bad laws, but promote good ones. For instance, Sen. Paul Wellstone’s “Right to Organize Act” is intended to target some of the worst abuses of labor law and expand the penalties for employers found to have violated the law.
Medicare Prescription Drugs
A prescription drug plan passed by the House in June would leave up to 70 percent of all Medicare recipients without coverage and take no action to lower the costs of drugs. But a plan put forth by House Democrats, similar to Vice President Al Gore’s plans, would make coverage available to all Medicare beneficiaries.
Patients’ Bill of Rights
A common election-year strategy by anti-union members of Congress is to claim support for programs that working families care about — by offering an alternative, always inferior bill.
That’s exactly what happened in the fight for a real patients’ bill of rights, with the House and Senate Republican leadership backing a weak Senate version of the bill while a coalition of House Democrats and Republicans voted for real reform.
The bipartisan House bill puts health care decisions back in the hands of patients and their doctors, holds insurance companies accountable for denying or withholding needed care, allows patients to go to the closest emergency room for medical care and gives patients access to prescription drugs and clinical trials.
The Senate bill provides no such protections. More than 300 consumer, labor, medical and patients rights organizations back the House bill and have rejected the Senate version. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two versions has been meeting for nearly a year with no end in sight.
The most effective way to end congressional gridlock on health care reform is to elect more members of Congress who will put the interests of working families ahead of those of the insurance industry.
Protection for Pensions
The Senate is considering a pension and retirement measure that will harm long-term and older workers. Supporters are billing it as “reform” but workers at IBM and other major companies, who lost tens of thousands of dollars when their defined benefit pension plans were changed into cash balance accounts, know better.
CWA and a coalition of pension rights supporters have been mobilizing to block the attack on workers’ benefits. They have won the support of key Democratic senators, who have pledged to eliminate the provision. If it were to pass, the bill not only would legitimize the theft of workers’ accrued benefits but would block lawsuits workers have filed to win back their benefits.
Job Safety and Health
The proposed ergonomics standard, put forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion illnesses in the workplace, will be history if pro-business representatives have their way in Congress.
CWA, has been pressing for a standard for two decades. Some 1.8 million workers across a broad range of industries and workplaces are affected each year by repetitive motion injuries and illnesses.
Presently, both the House and Senate versions of next year’s Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations bills prohibit OSHA from moving forward on the standard. President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, have pledged to veto any bill that bans further development of the OSHA ergonomics standard. The Republican platform flatly opposes the standard.
These are just a handful of measures being pushed by anti-worker members of Congress — a voting block that could get its way if workers and their families don’t make their voices heard Nov. 7.
Working families have been making a comeback at the polls in the last four years, cutting into the conservative, pro-business majority that came with the “Gingrich revolution” in 1994. The November election — when voters will elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 34 members of the Senate — is critical to deciding whether the working family agenda moves forward, or takes a fatal step backwards.
Following is a summary of key issues for working families.
Labor Issues
A Republican Congress and a Bush White House would bring a quick end to the Family and Medical Leave Act, which Congressional Democrats and the Clinton-Gore administration passed over bitter opposition. Because of the act, thousands of people across the country have been able to leave their jobs without fear of losing them in order to care for ailing family members. Republicans have proposed overturning it.
Another proposal introduced in the last Congress would have required employees to work 160 hours in a four-week period before overtime rates would be paid. Other legislation is designed to prevent union members from fully participating in the political process.
Electing representatives who advocate for labor and working families would not only prevent bad laws, but promote good ones. For instance, Sen. Paul Wellstone’s “Right to Organize Act” is intended to target some of the worst abuses of labor law and expand the penalties for employers found to have violated the law.
Medicare Prescription Drugs
A prescription drug plan passed by the House in June would leave up to 70 percent of all Medicare recipients without coverage and take no action to lower the costs of drugs. But a plan put forth by House Democrats, similar to Vice President Al Gore’s plans, would make coverage available to all Medicare beneficiaries.
Patients’ Bill of Rights
A common election-year strategy by anti-union members of Congress is to claim support for programs that working families care about — by offering an alternative, always inferior bill.
That’s exactly what happened in the fight for a real patients’ bill of rights, with the House and Senate Republican leadership backing a weak Senate version of the bill while a coalition of House Democrats and Republicans voted for real reform.
The bipartisan House bill puts health care decisions back in the hands of patients and their doctors, holds insurance companies accountable for denying or withholding needed care, allows patients to go to the closest emergency room for medical care and gives patients access to prescription drugs and clinical trials.
The Senate bill provides no such protections. More than 300 consumer, labor, medical and patients rights organizations back the House bill and have rejected the Senate version. The conference committee charged with reconciling the two versions has been meeting for nearly a year with no end in sight.
The most effective way to end congressional gridlock on health care reform is to elect more members of Congress who will put the interests of working families ahead of those of the insurance industry.
Protection for Pensions
The Senate is considering a pension and retirement measure that will harm long-term and older workers. Supporters are billing it as “reform” but workers at IBM and other major companies, who lost tens of thousands of dollars when their defined benefit pension plans were changed into cash balance accounts, know better.
CWA and a coalition of pension rights supporters have been mobilizing to block the attack on workers’ benefits. They have won the support of key Democratic senators, who have pledged to eliminate the provision. If it were to pass, the bill not only would legitimize the theft of workers’ accrued benefits but would block lawsuits workers have filed to win back their benefits.
Job Safety and Health
The proposed ergonomics standard, put forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion illnesses in the workplace, will be history if pro-business representatives have their way in Congress.
CWA, has been pressing for a standard for two decades. Some 1.8 million workers across a broad range of industries and workplaces are affected each year by repetitive motion injuries and illnesses.
Presently, both the House and Senate versions of next year’s Labor/Health and Human Services/Education appropriations bills prohibit OSHA from moving forward on the standard. President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, have pledged to veto any bill that bans further development of the OSHA ergonomics standard. The Republican platform flatly opposes the standard.