click to enlarge
Union members met with state legislators Apr 17 to urge support for bills backed by the California Labor Federation and the State Building and Construction Trades Council as part of the annual Legislative conference in Sacramento. Members of the State Senate and Assembly were questioned about their positions on the labor-backed bills. The legislative lobbying sessions were organized by the LA/OC Building Trades Council.
Meetings were held with Assembly members eeleven Assembly Members and State Senator. This list included Republican Assemblymen Jim Silva and Tom Spitzer and Republican State Senators Tom Harmon, and Bob Margett in addition to Democratic Assembly Members Mike Eng, Jose Solorio, Betty Karnette, Nell Soto and Michael Feuer and Democratic State Senators Gil Cedillo, and Ron Calderon. The legislators were asked to support labor’s five principles for health care reform, and make sure any legislation passed this year includes those principles.
“It is always a good to have an opportunity to meet with our allies and enemies in Sacramento in order to reiterate the agenda of the Building Trades,” said Richard Slawson, Executive Secretary of the LA/OC Building Trades Council. “We are looking forward to working with our elected officials on the issues of prevailing wages, healthcare, workers compensation and other issues important for membership.”
Also on the agenda were bills to restore the permanent disability benefits cut by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s workers’ compensation reform, support vocational education, restore funding for non-credit classes at community colleges, and reauthorize Labor Compliance Programs for the School Bond measure passed last fall. Legislators were also asked to oppose any Compact with Indian Gaming Tribes that does not contain provisions allowing workers to organize for union representation without employer interference. (The Compacts, negotiated by Schwarzenegger, passed the State Senate April 19.)
Health Care
The Executive Council of the California Labor Federation adopted five guiding principles for health care reform in December 2006. These principles are built on the values that union members and health care trustees have fought for in union contracts. Any health care reform proposals must guarantee affordable and universal coverage, reign in health care costs, require employers to pay their fair share, allow patients to choose their own doctors, and improve the quality of care.
Based on these principles, many labor unions have come out in support of the single-payer legislation introduced by State Senator Sheila Kuehl. SB 840 stands in sharp contrast to the ‘individual mandate’ proposal that would require everyone to pay for health insurance. Such a proposal was passed in Massachusetts— where former governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s health care reform pushed the individual mandate—showed that high deductibles and costly premiums made health insurance inaccessible to many.
Also a part of the legislative agenda is California’s workers’ compensation system that has undergone dramatic changes over the past five years. Employers have enjoyed significant savings to the tune of $11 billion and insurance companies are seeing record profits as a result. Worker’s, however, are suffering say Union officials.
Permanently injured workers have had their benefits slashed by over 50%. Temporarily disabled workers face steep limits on their benefits. Medical treatment is delayed and denied and injured workers aren’t being allowed to return even after they have fully recovered. Nearly 2/3rds of permanent disability benefit dollars have been cut out of the system. Injured workers have suffered a 50% cut in permanent disability benefits as a result of a new Permanent Disability Rating Schedule (PDRS) adopted by the Schwarzenegger Administration. Lower PD benefits have taken away incentives for employers to return injured workers to their jobs. In 2005, the Governor vetoed a bill to partially restore these benefits. The California Labor Federation is supporting SB 936 (Perata) and AB 1212 (Nunez) to restore some of these benefits.
The Schwarzenegger reforms cap temporary disability benefits to 24 months. Some injured workers have now maxed out their TD benefits and are forced to rely on worker-funded State Disability Insurance (SDI) benefits or go with nothing. AB 338, (Coto), also supported by the California Labor Federation, would provide injured workers a longer window of time to access benefits, extend the number of weeks of benefits, and determine that delays in accepting claims or in receiving needed medical care should not count against the TD time limit.
Legislators were asked to support the package of bills sponsored by the building trades that would increase vocational funding in schools. “Shop classes that introduce students to the trades have been eliminated in most high schools,” said Richard Slawson, Executive-Secreatry of the LA/OC Building Trades Council. “Our educational system needs to recognize that Building trades jobs are not second-class jobs. They provide good careers. Our craft members are highly skilled and work with both their hands and brains.”
|
Current News 
