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Nov/Dec 2000 issue (#48)
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THE LONG VIEW After a decade-long struggle, some 650 employees at two Michigan auto parts plants run by Eagle Picher Industries voted for a voice in the workplace with the UAW August 17. It was the second election ordered by the National Labor Relations Board (AFLCIO 9.5.00)
A STACKED DECK Providing further proof of the erosion of U.S. workers rights, Human Rights Watch released the results of a yearlong study. The group reported that workers in the United States lack the most basic, internationally recognized, workplace rights such as the freedom to organize, bargain and strike. The report noted that "weak" U.S. labor laws allow employers to fire, harass and intimidate workers trying to form unions; to refuse to bargain seriously when workers do form unions; and to nullify workers' right to strike by permanently replacing those who do strike. The report, "Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards," is available on HRW's website at www.hrw.org/reports/2000/uslabor. (AFLCIO 9.5.00)
HEALTH CARE The US spends over $1.2 trillion on health care services every year, significantly more per person than any other country. Yet we fail to cover over 45 million of our people. We fail to provide coverage for prescription drugs, long-term care, even often coverage for the chronically ill or essentials such as eye care, dental, hospice and adequate mental health services.
It surely is not the lack of money. We just spend it in the wrong places.
According to the Government Accounting Office, if we were to adopt a national universal coverage single- payer system and spent only what we already do, there would be sufficient resources to provide comprehensive benefits to everyone, cradle-to-grave, including prescription drugs and long-term care.
To do this, Congress and our nation's leaders must stare down the corporate health industry, including private insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.
So far, only the Labor Party's Just Healthcare proposal includes national financing to provide compensation for up to four years of retraining into socially useful jobs for insurance industry workers laid off due to phasing out of private insurance. Now, if they only had candidates and an electoral system other than "winner take all," they might gain a couple feet or yards before most of us die of private health care injury. (Above material is adapted from a Labor Party publication. Conclusion belongs to this editor.)
FEAR OF CLOSING International trade and investment policies, combined with ineffective labor laws, have created a climate that has emboldened employers to threaten to close, or actually close, their plants to avoid unionization, according to a new report, Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing, written for the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission by Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education at Cornell University. To access the full 86-page report, go to www.ustdrc.gov/research and download the file bronfenbrenner.pdf.
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