AFSCME Makes Health Care Reform Happen!

After decades of struggle and a year of debate, comprehensive health care reform has been enacted as the law of the land. And while it will take time to responsibly implement the law, the nation has finally put itself on a path to addressing skyrocketing costs and reining in insurance company abuses. This historic achievement was made possible because of the tremendous energy and commitment of AFSCME members, activists and leaders all over the country. These efforts brought home this victory and made AFSCME shine.

Checkout AFSCME's Revised Website on Health Care Reform

AFSCME has created a new website to help answer your members’ questions about healthcare reform.

Visit: http://www.afscme.org/healthcare

Includes:

* Factsheets for both employed members and retirees re: “what this means for you”.
* Timeline for reform implementation.
* Information on issues such as the excise tax for “Cadillac plans” and how the reforms will impact state & local budgets.
* Video address from President McEntee.
* Legislative scorecard to see how your representatives voted on health care reform
More!

Police Deserve More than Respect – They Deserve Our Support

2010 National Police Week President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation in 1962 designating May 9 to 15as National Police Week and May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day. Since then, the nation has formally honored those who lost their lives to protect us all.

This year, there’s something more that we can do for these courageous women and men: Encourage members of Congress to give public safety officers a federally protected right to bargain collectively.

AFSCME – which represents nearly 125,000 public safety officers nationwide (including nearly 30,000 police officers) – is urging Congress to pass the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2009 (H.R. 413/S. 3194). The legislation establishes minimum state collective bargaining standards for corrections officers, police, emergency medical technicians and firefighters.

Also high on AFSCME’s legislative agenda for public safety officers is increasing federal funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program, which provides grants to hire police officers, improve law enforcement communications technology, and other initiatives.

Additional funding for COPS will help local law enforcement agencies across the country whose budgets are being cut or threatened with shortfalls, compromising public safety.

Too many law enforcement officers have lost their lives on the job. Let’s support the living while we honor the dead.

Learn more about AFSCME-represented law enforcement officers here. Also, check out the latest AFSCME research on law enforcement here.

Source: AFSCME Greenline Blog

Juvenile Correctional Schools Under Review

Governor appoints public committee to look at future of juvenile correctional schools

On April 8, Governor Doyle announced he was appointing a “Juvenile Corrections Review Committee” whose mission is to “formulate a committee recommendation for the Governor regarding the best correctional environment for delinquent youth which will enable them to learn, grow and change their behavior for successful community integration.”

The committee will hold its third meeting May 7 on site at Lincoln Hills School for Boys near Merrill in northern Wisconsin. The committee, which toured Ethan Allen last week, is comprised of public members, including four judges, two ministers, a therapist, a county human service manager, a retired educator, the director of Rawhide Boys Ranch, and a representative of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. There are no legislators or union representatives on the committee.

AFSCME has been working with lawmakers and advocates for some time to call attention to the larger issues surrounding juvenile offenders. The central problem is how Wisconsin pays for services for teens that run afoul of the law, and how it treats those who are over 17. Generally, teens 17 and over who commit serious crimes are sent into the adult system, and the bill is paid by the state. Offenders under age 17 are handled by the juvenile courts, which have an array of options to deal with teens, including sending them to the three juvenile schools. If kids are sent to the schools, counties pay the price - $279 per day, or more than $100,000 per year.

AFSCME will continue to work with the DOC and committee members and urge them to look at how Wisconsin can do better to address the overwhelming needs of teen offenders, whether in the community or in the state juvenile schools. We will challenge the committee to look at the funding issues, which are at the core of the decline in the school populations, and urge the committee to take a stand in favor of raising the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 17.

Source: AFSCME C24 UIN 05/07/2010

Marty Beil and John "SLY" Sylvester Continue Discussion of State Employees

Posted by SLY at Lunch Pail Logic on April 14, 2010

Marty Beil and John “Sly” Sylvester, from 1670 WTDY-Madison continue the public discussion of state employees. Use the control buttons at the webpage [http://wseu-sepac.org/lpl_20100417_interviewofmbeil.htm] to listen to the interview. There is no downloading or the need to save to file. The below control buttons will bring you instant sound and you can stop and play, fast forward or reverse if you wish. Now turn up the speakers, sit back and relax and listen to the interview.

AFSCME Member's Fought Hard for Health Care Reform

Message from Council 24 Executive Director Martin Beil on behalf of AFSCME President McEntee:

President Obama recently signed the most significant piece of legislation in a generation. For the first time, our nation recognizes that health care is genuinely a right for all Americans. AFSCME members fought hard to pass President Obama’s health care reform package, and now it’s the law of the land. This victory will protect and improve good union health care benefits. It stops the worst abuses of the insurance companies. It gives workers and families without coverage on-the-job access to affordable health care. It ends skyrocketing premiums and caps on benefits. It helps seniors by closing the prescription drug donut hole, strengthening Medicare and helping employers pay for coverage of pre-Medicare retirees. It provides critical new funding to states.

AFSCME ran the largest mobilization campaign in our history to pass health care reform. More than 300,000 phone calls and letters were sent to Congress. We used texting and new media. We put ads on TV, online and in the papers. We marched, we lobbied and we prevailed.

Click on the title of this posting and you will find a thorough and factual summary of the health care reforms that are most important to AFSCME and its members. We hope you will use this educational tool to counter any misinformation currently circulating.

Thank you.

Presumption Bill Passes Senate – Assembly Up Next

Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-West Allis) and Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) are the primary authors of Senate Bill 429 and Assembly Bill 644. Under current law, firefighters, public emergency medical services providers and law enforcement officers who die or become disabled due to heart or lung disease are eligible for benefits like worker’s compensation because it is “presumed” that they contracted the disease on the job. SB 429 and AB 644 would add infectious diseases to the list of illnesses for which a worker can get benefits. Also, for the first time, state and local corrections staff would be covered under presumption, but only for exposure to infectious diseases. SB 429 passed the State Senate on an 18 – 15 party line vote, with the Democrats voting in favor on Tuesday. The Assembly has scheduled both bills for a vote on Thursday, with AFSCME believing the bill has enough votes to gain passage and get sent to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

Questions should be directed to the AFSCME Lobbyists:

Susan McMurray
smcmurray@wiafscme.org

John Grabel
jgrabel@wiafscme.org

Workers Memorial Day

On April 28, AFSCME and the other unions of the AFL-CIO observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew the fight for safe workplaces.

Use the links below to request buttons, posters and fact sheets and to let us know about Workers Memorial Day events in your area.

•Workers Memorial Day Events
•Workers Memorial Day Materials Request Form

AFSCME Recognizes Its Member Librarians

AFSCME represents more than 25,000 library workers nationwide - more than any other union. AFSCME is a leading advocate for equitable pay for library workers and for full funding for public libraries. From the Library of Congress and public libraries in Boston, New York, the District of Columbia, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle/King County to public, school, college and university libraries nationwide, AFSCME librarians and library workers serve thousands of patrons every day.

Press Release from the WI State AFL-CIO

For Immediate Release
Contact: Sara Wallenfang, (414) 418-5485

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Welcomes the Improved Clean Energy Jobs Act
Latest proposal makes bill better for working families

“We are excited about the proposed modifications to the Clean Energy Jobs Act. The working families that we represent appreciate the improvements made to increase and to speed up job creation,” says Phil Neuenfeldt, Secretary-Treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “The provisions added to allow job creating conservation and efficiency to count towards the Renewable Portfolio Standard and the clarification to the nuclear language are both positive changes.”

Wisconsin has no natural gas, no coal and no oil. We currently send $16 billion out of our state every year to meet our energy needs.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act will create clean energy that works for Wisconsin, and is made in Wisconsin. This is a huge opportunity to reduce our dependence on foreign fuel and make sure that Wisconsin doesn’t lose green jobs to countries like China.

“The jobs created by this legislation are good, family-wage jobs,” says Neuenfeldt. “This is the right choice for the environment and our economy.”

[END]

Legislative Bills on the Move

Right to Know for Corrections Officers

Senate Bill 547, which would give corrections officers the right to know if an inmate has a contagious disease, received a unanimous vote of approval from the Senate Committee on Public Health this week. The Public Health Committee’s action now makes SB 547 available to be scheduled for a full vote of the Senate. AFSCME is lobbying Senate leadership to put the bill on the calendar.

Dues Deduction Bill Receives Public Hearing

Assembly Bill 916, which would allow retirees in the Wisconsin Retirement System to choose to have their union dues voluntarily deducted from their pensions, received a public hearing in the Assembly Labor Committee this week. Identical legislation, Senate Bill 390, was recommended for passage by the Senate Labor committee last month, and awaits scheduling for the floor by the Senate Organization Committee, Chaired by Senator Majority Leader Russ Decker. AFSCME is working diligently to get these bills passed before the session ends.

All questions should be directed to the AFSCME Lobbyists at (608) 836-6666.

Beil Calls Out WPimpRI

By Scot @ One Wisconsin Now - Apr 6th, 2010 at 11:58 am EDT

Marty Beil, never one to mince words when it comes to standing up for working men and women across Wisconsin, responded to the continuing assaults by the GOP shills at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute against our dedicated public employees:

“If Scott Walker wants to communicate with me, I would think he's man enough to do it himself and not use a surrogate or a pimp like George Lightbourn.”

One Wisconsin Now has previously written about WPRI’s most-recent junk science report, but Beil broke down exactly WPRI and its allies’ goals in an interview with Sly on WTDY yesterday.

He said WPRI is "is all about kind of fomenting this anti-government, anti-public employee, anti-taxpayer kind of mentality.”

As One Wisconsin Now pointed out, the most recent assault on working men and women from WPRI has a flawed model, ignores the specialized work of public employees and makes a host of false comparisons which would laughed out of any first year survey course.

Hats off to Beil for standing up against this pap.

And when it comes to Scott Walker’s $2 billion tax giveaway to rich people and big business, WPRI’s endless stream of bile is a good indication that he would try and pay for it by slashing the public services that fuel Wisconsin’s middle class, protect our streets and make Wisconsin different from Alabama and Mississippi.

Just look at how Milwaukee County has suffered under his negligence.

Link to original post of Scot Ross from One Wisconsin NOW >>>
[http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/page/community/post/scotross/CHWb]

A Few Words from President McEntee

A Monumentally Important Victory

Sisters and brothers:

Last night we won a monumentally historic victory when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive health care reform bill by a vote of 219-212.

1. Working together, we made it happen. In the days leading up to the vote, we executed a union-wide grassroots, grasstops and communications campaign that achieved the following:

2. Nearly 10,000 contacts to Congress. Aided by an aggressive robo and live call operation in our targeted districts, AFSCME members braved jammed phone lines and placed thousands of calls to Congress and backed them up with thousands emails.

3. Nearly 7,000 retiree calls. AFSCME sponsored a retiree patch through operation in cooperation with the Alliance for Retired Americans, with a message of closing the prescription drug donut hole.

4. More than 40 AFSCME grasstops contacts. In the days leading up to the vote, I joined more than 40 AFSCME statewide and local union leaders and staff to call and write targeted members of Congress armed with talking points on specific issues, including the excise tax and abortion.

5. Targeted advertising and branding. AFSCME executed a major television ad campaign with HCAN and Americans United, which ran in targeted districts and in DC during the run up to the vote. We also launched an aggressive online ad campaign to generate calls to Congress from the netroots.

This week, AFSCME will join HCAN to launch a major television ad campaign in key Democratic districts to assure our friends who took tough votes that we have their backs. And we will conduct grassroots work to ensure that the final, simple-majority vote in the U.S. Senate goes our way.

But though our work continues, let’s take a moment to savor this historic victory – and the lead role AFSCME played to secure it.

AFSCME's Members Can Make It Happen!

AFSCME's Make America Happen campaign for health care reform has been the largest issue mobilization campaign in the union's history, generating more than 400,000 phone calls and letters to Congress. In addition, the 1.6 million member union has invested in an aggressive $10 million television, online and print advertising campaign, along with an unprecedented use of texting and new media.

Read more >>>

AFSCME to Begin Polling of Members

Beginning this week, AFSCME International will be conducting a national member survey.

The survey will help AFSCME determine member priorities in terms of national and state issues and also help AFSCME prepare for the upcoming election season by testing different messages, from health care to state budgets. AFSCME will also test some key statewide electoral match-ups and other items, like how our members get their political information. This information will be critical in helping your Union put together campaign plans for this fall.

In addition to the national survey, AFSCME will oversample in some of their priority states, including: New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada. When the survey is complete AFSCME will schedule a poll briefing with key leaders in these states to share the results.

If you receive such a call please take the time to provide the information that you are asked for by representatives of your Union. Thank you!