Medical and Political Choices
Local 18 Members Enjoy Excellent Health Benefits;
The Advantages of Blue Cross Over Anti-Union PacifiCare

One of the blackest stains on contemporary American society is that grim fact that about 75 million non-elderly people (below 65 years of age) have been without even some kind of basic health coverage for at least six months during the past two years. This is about one out of three people in the United States, including millions of children! Worse, some 18 million people have had no insurance for the last two years. This is shocking and intolerable, a completely unacceptable situation, one that dangerously strains public-health systems (paid by your tax dollars) throughout the country and needlessly exposes tens of thousands of Americans to the threat of illness and disease. Add to that the moral failure indicated by ignoring the basic needs of so many people, and you see the enormity of the problem.

In the richest, most powerful nation the world has ever known, millions of our fellow Americans—including legions of hard-working men, women and families—simply do not have even the thinnest of medical-health “safety nets” to cushion them. What does this say about our society, about our values, when people (most often through no fault of their own) must choose between food and adequate medical care, when they must select between a roof over their head and medicine or a procedure that may ease suffering or literally save their lives?

And, never forget that when people cannot receive proper and timely preventive care, or have their ailments fully and competently treated, the rest of us are at more risk because of the threat of communicable diseases. We also face an ever-increasing economic threat when millions and millions of uninsured people are forced to the medical-care system of last resort: public hospitals and clinics. These facilities are swamped, manned by caring, but hopelessly overloaded staff, and they must take in ailing people. Who do you think ultimately pays for this? That’s right, you.

In Stark Comparison....

You can refer to your Blue Cross (HMO) medical-coverage benefit package through Local 18 and the Department of Water and Power as the Rolls Royce of plans. At the other end of the spectrum, say, the rusted, beat-up jalopy on blocks, is PacifiCare. PacifiCare is a California-based HMO and mail order pharmacy service.

What’s important here is not necessarily the scope of PacifiCare’s health plans, but, instead, this: last month, the national AFL-CIO set up a fact-finding committee to investigate PacifiCare for alleged intimidation and harassment against workers who want a voice (union) on the job.

Equally important, this is the first fact-finding committee ever established by the AFL-CIO to investigate complaints of anti-worker tactics brought by an affiliated union against an employer with a significant union clientele.

The complaining union, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE), states that PacifiCare has waged a campaign that discouraged its employees from organizing to improve working conditions. For example, pharmacists affiliated with PacifiCare in Carlsbad, California, voted to organize and PACE was certified as their bargaining representative in November, 2001. PacifiCare stalled and intimidated, threatening to replace their pharmacists with temps. Finally, PACE was forced to withdraw its petition and the pharmacists’ fledgling union was de-certified in December, 2002. As of this writing, there is still no contract for the PacifiCare pharmacists in Carlsbad.

Many unions, and thousands of members and families, are insured by PacifiCare and utilize its mail order pharmacy service, Rx-Solutions. PacifiCare also markets another mail order pharmacy service, MyUnionRx, exclusively to labor unions.

This is completely unacceptable behavior by any employer, but especially one that actively seeks out union business and counts on it for a sizable share of its revenue! As national AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka notes, “companies cannot have it both ways. If they want union business, they must respect the right of their employees to choose union representation. That’s the bottom line. Our union affiliates need to be informed about it so that they can respond appropriately.”

Brother Trumka is absolutely right: For any company that seeks—and does—extensive business with unions to turn around and thwart legitimate union organizing activity is akin to a heavily labor-supported and endorsed politician winning office and then actively opposing the agenda of the working men and women who put him/her there. This stinks!

In Sum

Adequate, affordable medical health coveage is an essential human right, not a “gift” to be handed out (or withheld under threat) at the whim of any employer. If employers by themselves cannot or will not provide enough coverage, then it is incumbent upon government to see to it that all working people and everyone else without some kind of medical coverage has it. Basic health and treatment is fundamental—without it, what good are any other rights and benefits you may have?

Nearly 80% of the people lacking health insurance in the last two years were in the labor force! Working people like us. Worse, California “leads” the nation in uninsured people: Some 11.1 million people in our state can get no care, are forced into overcrowded public facilities, or are at the “mercy” of individually paid health plans which are exorbitant in cost and iffy in coverage. We need a thorough and immediate overhaul of America’s health-care delivery and insurance systems. More than that, we need an administration in Washington, D.C. that understands—and is committee to—resolving this pressing, human need!

A society is often judged by how it treats its weakest members, especially children, the poor and the elderly. By this test only, whatever our other accomplishments and goals, we are coming up appallingly short.


Labor Wins Big in Recent City Elections!

Organized labor, spearheaded by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s outstanding and successful campaigning efforts in the March 4 municipal elections, is back in the win column—big time, and that’s great news!

The massive effort of the Fed, union leaders, members and families—voluntarily and on their own time—has put one of our strongest, smartest and most understanding allies onto the Los Angeles City Council. Brother Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not only a staunch friend of unions and working people, but a man who rose up through the ranks of organized labor, is the new councilman from the 14th District, representing much of East Los Angeles. Villaraigosa handily defeated incumbent Councilman Nick Pacheco, 57%-40%, not only avoiding a May runoff, but emphatically putting an end to one of the nastiest political campaigns in recent city memory.

You may recall that shortly after Brother Villaraigosa announced his candidacy, a close friend of Pacheco personally paid for two district-wide mailers that viciously attacked the former Assembly Speaker as both a puppet of Anglo interests and cheating husband. These scurrilous attacks were so beyond whatever “rules of campaign decency” that do exist that a number of high-profile local leaders who had endorsed Pacheco backed away from his candidacy. Worse, Pacheco himself offered virtually no repudiation for the below-the-belt trash that was put out in his name. Pacheco simply didn’t have the stature or the “right stuff,” at the right time, to survive.

As Villaraigosa noted on election night, when the outcome had been decided in his favor, “this district was looking for a leader that could unite us and take on the big challenges. The crime rate is not only a public-safety issue but a public-health issue. The growing blight throughout the community, the lack of responsible development, the need for building community, ultimately is what people saw. I think there was a feeling that we could do better.”

The district could do better, and it did. Welcome back to public service, Brother Villaraigosa!

Other Election Wins

As impressive (nearly 3-2 over a sitting incumbent!) and welcome as Villaraigosa’s victory was, organized labor and the working people it represents in Los Angeles County, ably led by Brother Miguel Contreras and the County Fed, enjoyed an evening full of victories, and re-claimed a lot of its political “clout”, along with strong promise for the future.

  • In the City’s 10th Council District, labor’s candidate, former Fed and Villaraigosa staffer Martin Ludlow, overcame three well-known local figures to easily make it into a May 20 runoff for the seat being vacated by long-serving Councilman Nate Holden. Ludlow won 26% of the vote, more than doubling the turnout for the three also-rans. His opponent in May will be Deron Williams, Holden’s veteran chief field deputy, who led the pack with 39% of the vote. Already, Williams is bracing for the expected strong effort by organized labor on behalf of Ludlow. And he’d better, because electing Ludlow to the City Council is our top agenda item between now and May 20. Organized labor will pull out all the stops, supply as much money and as many campaign helpers as needed, in order to put another friend of working men and women on the City Council!
  • In the Los Angeles Unified School District Board elections, organized labor did well, too. Fully realizing a) the disgraceful and woefully neglected state of our public schools, and b) the absolute necessity to provide all LAUSD students with the best-possible education, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) ran a determined campaign to remove big-business/ Richard Riordan-backed board members and replace them with people who will represent union, family, educator and student values. The UTLA was very successful.
  • In two of the four races (1st and 3rd Districts), UTLA-backed candidates—former high school Principal Marguerite LaMotte and former high school teacher Jon Lauritzen—defeated the ruling coalition candidates, including Board of Education President Caprice Young. In a third race (5th District), UTLA-supported incumbent David Tokofsky barely missed winning outright and will take a commanding lead of over 20 points into the May 20 runoff against his challenger. In all three races, organized labor, spearheaded by the UTLA, provided the muscle, money and volunteers that made the winning difference.

As the Los Angeles Times noted the day after the elections, “the Los Angeles teachers union is once again a dominant force in the nation’s second-largest school district, with the potential to dramatically reshape policy after helping to topple two powerful Board of Education incumbents.”

What All This Means

The election results now allow the County Fed, and through it all the LA-area unions and the men and women they represent, to gain an even stronger presence on the City Council and, by extension, in the City Hall offices of Mayor James Hahn.

Consider this: organized labor already had a number of reliable, active friends on the Council prior to the March 4 elections. We had supported almost half of the current council members. Now, with the addition of Brother Villaraigosa, our voice—and agenda—will be that much more in the forefront of deliberations. And we have high hopes for a May 20 victory by our other friend, Martin Ludlow. Further, election night saw City Council wins by incumbent Tom LaBonge (4th) and newcomer, ex-State Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (6th). Organized labor has worked well with both men in the past, and there is no reason to assume that our mutually beneficial relationship will not continue. In the hotly contested 12th Council District race, organized labor’s candidate, Julie Korenstein, faces an uphill runoff in a predominantly conservative district, but she has a chance against veteran City Hall staffer Greig Smith.

We can be reasonably confident that the new City Council will continue its recent trend of union-friendly activity. Our allies are—and will shortly be—in place and, we hope, outspoken in their support and leadership. They know our priorities and they are receptive to our point of view. Organized labor has great hopes that the Los Angeles City Council will continue to be pro-active on issues of importance to working people and not lapse back into that generally dreary, 1990s reactive (ineffective, even hostile) posture with respect to our concerns. We very much hope our friends on the Council will lead, will be out in front, for the tens of thousands of union working men, women and families who helped put them into office.

County Fed Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras summed it up best on election night: “We’re back in business!”

Amen, brother.

In unity,

BRIAN D’ARCY, Business Manager

 

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