On Monday, June 21st, local UAW 1887 rallied workers to picket Mallinckrodt’s pharmaceutical chemical plant located at 3601 North Broadway in St. Louis, Missouri. Mallinckrodt is a division of Covidien recently spun-off from Tyco International.  

The strike has been going on since May 1st after a non-resolvable impasse emerged as contracts expired.

At issue:

* Frozen pensions for current employees

* Elimination of overtime pay for holidays and Sundays

* Lower wages for new hires

* Elimination of medical coverage for retirees

Jim Wells, Director of UAW Region 5, excoriated Covidien for rolling back benefits and deal points while millions went to CEO Richard Meelia,

“Their CEO made over 15 million dollars last year–tell me that’s fair! Tell me that’s fair to working people! This strike is not only about 1887 (UAW local). It’s about all labor. It’s you standing up for labor and what’s right. We want justice! We want justice!”

The irony is that Covidien’s name insinuates co-equal consideration and collaboration as it’s drawn from the Latin, “co” for together, and “vi” for life. There’s nothing “together” about wages and benefits cut down for workers while Covidien’s 2008 net revenue — at the height of recession — was well over a billion dollars.

St. Louis Board of Alderman President, Lewis Reed, gave a stirring speech reminding folks that hard fought for protections were not won with a walk in the park,

“You know, this fight that you’re fighting today, is a fight for UAW, is a fight for the working men and women in this Union. But not just for UAW, it’s for America. When you think about some of the things we take for granted–you think about the 40 hour work week, you think about safe work environments, you think about vacation time and all those things that we take for granted today–those things were not brought to Americans on a bed of roses. They just weren’t. They were brought to men and women–and we take them for granted today–they were brought to us by the Unions through fights that we’re having just like here today!”

A strong economy not only involves business growth, opportunities and entrepreneurial investment, but it also means good quality Missouri jobs for lower and middle income wage earners — balance and diversification are key.

My granddad Walter was a charter member of the stagehands union and instilled in our family the value of working together. His motto? “Always use the right tool for the right job.” He made every hammer, saw, and chisel with his own hands. His values and work ethic have been a lifelong inspiration for me.

Having been a writing and publishing member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for nearly two decades, I have seen how collective bargaining, organizing and legislative advocacy have provided opportunities to our members that would have never been possible without sticking together.

Today, many people express frustration with Union bureaucracy; but the reality is that organized labor provides critical and unsung positive influences on the entire marketplace in keeping management honest for Union and non-Union members alike. When pushing for good jobs and workplace rights in an era of decreasing wages, benefits and rampant outsourcing, organized labor is the “right tool for the right job.”

Recently in the US, free-market ideology has run amok threatening to topple important checks and balances in our economy. Unregulated mania in the banking and mortgage industries born of an overreaching free-market dogma has caused great suffering and cost our nation over 8 million jobs through the recent Great Recession.

We need to roll back some of these ill-conceived trends in economic theory brought to you by fiscal opportunists, paid-off and complicit legislators. I applaud those workers on the front lines, like those I was with yesterday at Covidien, fighting for their fair share.

Jim Wells ended his speech chanting with the crowd, “One more day. One more day.”

Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D), who had a hand in organizing the United Autoworkers Rally, spoke throughout the Sunday afternoon event, at times acting as a master of ceremonies, at other times using the pulpit to contribute his insights and educate those in attendance.

Our previous coverage:

Governor Jay Nixon (D) at the UAW “Save Our Jobs Rally” in Kansas City on February 8

UAW “Save Our Jobs Rally” in Kansas City

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver:…These are some difficult times. In times like these you always discover who your friends are. At times like these you find out who is in fact for you and who is neutral and neutrality is opposition.

And the good news about this coming together of working men and working women, the coming together of people who created the middle class for the United States of America, is that we have a leader, thank God, [applause] we have a leader [applause] in the state of Missouri who does not back away from, in fact he comes in to close proximity to, and sides with the working men and women of the State of Missouri. And there are states that cannot have such a rally with a governor. There are states where men and women must gather without the strong support of the top of their state government, but not Missouri…

…We in Missouri have been fortunate that we have placed in the governor’s mansion somebody who understands the pain and aches of everyday men and women. Somebody who comes to grips with the fact that this economy is bad but it will get better only if you get better. It will not get better if Wall Street gets better, it will get better if you get better. [voice: “Yeah!”] [applause] It will not get better if parties get better. [applause]…

…[auto workers] in the United States are making too much money? They need to make what they make in Germany or Japan? [applause] [cheers] It’s a working class thing. It’s a working class thing. [applause] It’s a working class thing. They don’t want to see people, every day people, earn enough money to take care of their families and retire. No, it’s not enough money. This is the United States of America and we ought not to be tryin’ to race backward to catch backward with people from Japan. [applause] [cheers] This is the United States of America. [cheers] [applause] And that’s why, that’s why you have all your elected official here….We come here because we know that on the 17th people will start trying to beat up on the [auto] industry again, so that we won’t make money available, so that recovery is possible.

In 1979 Chrysler went into intensive care. People began to write the eulogy for the Chrysler company. They organized a choir…[laughter] to sing “Amazing Grace” at the funeral service for Chrysler. The Chrysler people came before Congress and they said, “Give us a chance.”  And Congress said, “We will, but you got poor management.” They hired a man named Lee Iacoca who came in, turned Chrysler around. Congress gave a four billion dollar grant, stock warrants. Four billion dollars. Chrysler paid back four billion dollars and then paid eight hundred million dollars in interest. They turned it around. That’s what Americans can do. [voice: “Yeah.”]

And that’s why my friend Congressman Moore and I are in the committee. To make sure that when people come in to forget you, somebody’s gonna say something. I’m glad [cheers] [applause] …I’m gonna tell you something. I hope you, uh, don’t, don’t ever forget this as long as you live. Out of all the members of Congress elected in the entire State of Kansas there was only one person who voted for you. Only one member of Congress. Not senators, Not House of Representatives members. One person voted for you. I’m glad he’s my friend. Dennis Moore. {cheers] [applause]…

…Friends, there’s a man by the name of Lee Raymond. Lee Raymond. He retired from Exxon-Mobile. With four hundred million dollars. I didn’t make a mistake and say four hundred and then forty million. He had a retirement package of four hundred million dollars. Enough money for the retirement of everybody in this gymnasium. [voice: “Yeah.”] [cheers] [applause] And we cannot allow that. Look, my daddy is eighty seven years old. I thank God he’s eighty seven years old. He, and a lot of these men and women you see here retired? They built this country. [applause] [cheers] They deserve the opportunity [applause] [cheers] to live in their sunset years without worrying about whether or not they can buy groceries. [applause][cheers] Retirees in the United States of America deserve… [applause][cheers] Built this country. [applause][cheers]….

….And every time somebody loses a hou…a job, eventually, they’re going to lose a house.  And when they lose a house, the city loses revenue. Every time the city loses revenue, a neighborhood goes into decline. Every time a neighborhood goes into decline, the housing values drop. Every time the housing values drop, the economy falters. Everything is connected. we’re all connected in this country. we may not have come over here on the same, uh, ship, but we’re the same boat. [laughter] And so we need to understand that we must stick together. [applause] There are more of us than them. [cheers] There are way more of us than them. I’ll show you what I’m talkin’ about. Name all your millionaire friends. [laughter] Who, who hang out at your house. [laughter] Name them. You get the point? There are more of us than them.

This is our country as well. This is their country [pointing to retirees]. They worked to build this nation. They deserve to live their years of, non working years, in a way that’s comfortable. This is the United States. And we got to convince a lot of people in Washington, that’s why we’re here today. That we cannot save the nation without saving the automobile industry. It’s impossible. We can’t do it.

And I’m glad that you are here today because this sends a signal in case people were becoming lulled into believing that, uh, you know, everybody was accepting their fate and we were not, uh, going to do anything about it, This turns this around…

Our previous coverage:

UAW “Save Our Jobs Rally” in Kansas City

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon spoke at the United Auto Workers “Save Our Jobs Rally” in the gym at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City on Sunday, February 8th:

[applause] Thank you. It’s great to be here today with my great friend, Congressman, Representative [Cleaver]. As well as Congressman Moore who has come over from Kansas. We appreciate him being here and… [applause] I especially appreciate his discipline of not wearing any Kansas Jayhawk garb. [laughter] After his, after his…in the great State of Missouri.

I was in Florissant, Missouri about eight or nine weeks ago. We were announcing the expansion of job training in the state of Missouri. And I was walkin’ in to talk to a group of folks that were being trained to work on F-18s for Boeing. And I walked into a friend of mine who I had known from some period of time ago that had been laid off as a autoworker. And he was there, I asked him why he was there, he was there because he was in a retraining class to become a lineman for the electric company – to repair things when there are ice storms. And he’s workin’ right now down in southern Missouri where we still have about 40,000 people out of power. He had not yet completed that class, and he had certainly not yet completed any of the benefits his union had gotten for him even though he had been laid off. But he was there, even though he could be home, getting another skill, not because he wanted to work as a lineman, but because he had faith that we had solidarity together, in Missouri and in this region. That as the auto industry transforms to the auto industry of the future – hybrids, electrics, fuel efficient vehicles – that he wanted to be here in our region, in our state because he had faith in the people sittin’ here and he had faith in you. That when you look at the ledger and you see where the most productive workers in America are you look at Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri. [cheers][applause]…

…On any indices which you look at, how hard people work, how productive they are, how few challenges and problems come from the vehicles that come off the line, Kansas City and St. Louis both rank number one and number two in that. All of us up here are gonna use the power that the electorate has given us to hold for just a little while to make sure not only that we protect the lifestyle and the jobs we have now, but as this domestic auto industry retools and looks to the future, that it grows right here. Okay. Grows. [applause]

Now, not only does what’s happening in the auto industry affect the folks that work on the line. It also has a dramatic effect on the communities, on the suppliers, on the other businesses that tie into this, this web, this economic web that’s formed the backbone. The building of things right here in America, right here in our communities. The using of those finely produced items has a network out there. That is one of the reasons why on my very first day in office I signed an executive order to establish a special working group to put Missouri number one when the auto industry starts moving forward in this country again, to lay out a task force to get the jobs right here. [applause]

Too many high quality hard working people have already been laid off. Too many hard working high quality workers in this country, in this state, in this region aren’t working. So you bet we gotta keep what we got. You bet we gotta protect the turf that we own here. But as we look forward from this day it should be marked not only by a renewed vigor to protect what we already have, but equally, if not more importantly than that, this must be remembered as the touchstone of the place where a new future began. A new future of expanding domestic auto production. A new future for fuel efficient hybrids. A new future for the connections that make this economy work.

So as you work at Claycomo or Fairfax or Fenton, wherever, you shouldn’t feel like you’re alone. You go down to the boot heel of the State of Missouri, I mean way down there, down there where they have that almost inedible Memphis style barbecue. [laughter] There’s a plant down there. Right on the river. Company called Noranda, you probably don’t, you haven’t probably heard of it. ‘Bout nine hundred union steelworkers workin’ that plant in the boot heel. And for those of you who haven’t had to do any organizing lately you try organizing in the boot heel of the State of Missouri. Now friends, that’s God’s work right there. [laughter] Two hundred and sixty million tons of aluminum produced right here in the show me state. They’re working on alloys there for the newest fuel efficient vehicles. They’re working on producing lighter, yet stronger, vehicles that’ll meet the new mileage standards. Those folks in the boot heel they’re counting on us and they’re counting on you, too. They want to provide the parts of the vehicles that you build right here. Okay. They want to continue their shifts and expand their production. And they’re relying on us, right here, to do that.

What we’re the part here, is a big web. A web of making a choice as to whether or not we’re gonna be a country that produces the things that we use or waits on other countries to provide those goods to us. This country was born and expanded because of the strength of our manufacturing base. [applause] We won World War II because of the courage of people in the battle lines, but we also won World War II because of the efficiency and effectiveness of the workers at home provided those battle lines the best products, quickest, as this country sacrificed to make the whole world a free place to live over sixty years ago. Time and time and time again what our manufacturing base has been able to produce has made our jobs safer, and our world better.

So, if there was one thing I would leave you from is that, is that we all have to begin to work to understand how, how gettin’ a job and expanding a line at Fairfax or Claycomo, how that also helps one of your brothers or sisters in the boot heel. How when it comes to carbon fiber technology it’s gonna be necessary for some of the parts of the future that Zoltek in St. Louis holds that, that patent. That when it comes to batteries that can produce more juice the lead for those batteries, over ninety per cent of the domestic lead comes from Iron County in this state.

It is not accidental that the auto industry has been a big part of what we’re, we are. A big part of how we define ourselves as a state. So, as we move forward we can’t ever forget where we’ve been. And we certainly won’t ever forget that we’re ready to compete. But we must continue to educate our friends, our neighbors, our elected officials and everyone else about this, this inteconnectivity. This ways we touch other jobs. Because if we don’t, in a highly competitive world, the’ll build these new plants, they’ll expand these new lines in other places. And that, my friends, is simply not acceptable. We’re ready for ’em right here. [applause]

Giving up on Missouri’s auto, auto industry, is quite frankly, not an option. Okay. It’s not an option [applause] And having our workers move to other states to work, or having them see their stature of living drop for a period of time is unacceptable, too. But I am confident. And the reason I’m confident that things are gonna get better? The reason I am? It is not ’cause of any of the politicians up here. Or me. I don’t mean to single out anybody. we got politicians all over the place. [laughter] It is only though because in the last few opportunities this public in the state has had the chance to speak. And in our, my brother
s from Kansas have had a chance to speak, you and your neighbors have decided that you want to be represented by people that are actually on your side of this fight, okay. [applause]

I like wagering when you gotta good chance to win. You know. It’s always good to bet if you know your team’s better than the other team. Well I want to tell you folks I have been in just darn near every plant. I’be been to darn near every retirees meeting place you could possibly be. I’ve sat down over the last year with basically every group of folks that got clipped or laid off for a period of time. And I want to tell you, a safe bet is bettin’ on the future of the auto industry in our country and in this region. [applause] That’s one we’re gonna make now.

Now I’m out there each day trying to negotiate and try to work to try to make sure we provide the kind of framework here and the kind of place where people can, can expand. As this auto industry comes back, as we get through this down turn, the true success of those states and those people when we come out of this down turn aren’t gonna be on which state was able to figure out how to give the quickest tax breaks to the biggest companies. Okay. It’s gonna, the, the true victory on the back side will be when those companies that do want to expand choose a place to expand. The reason they will choose Missouri to expand to and this region is because of you. It’s because of the workers It’s because of the human capital that we have built up.

I know time are tough. Got a twenty five year high unemployment rate. I know there are challenges. In health care, and education, many other things. But none of those problems will be solved if we give up on the manufacturing base of the United States of America. Not a single one.We, we won’t ever come back. If we’re not building the things we’re buying we won’t ever come back. If we export your lifestyle and the retirees lifestyle to some other country for pennies on the dollar and make us wait for them to provide the things that we drive and live in, then we’ll step backwards.

No one would have given up their Sunday afternoon to be here if thought we were gonna have a discussion about how we were gonna lose. This is a discussion, this is a touchstone spot for how we’re gonna start winning again. Okay. [applause] Winning. [applause]

So, when I was down in the boot heel this weekend I happened to run into a guy that was a friend of the guy who trained as a lineman. Sure enough he was down in the boot heel where they had an ice storm and was workin’ down there. I was tryin’ to find him, but he was one, one step ahead of me most of the day. I figured I’d wait for him at the place they were servin’ lunch, but you know what? He skipped lunch and didn’t come on for lunch because there were people out of power. He worked right on through his lunch hour restore people’s power there, so I didn’t get to, I didn’t get to see my friend. But he’s working as he has been these last few days restoring power, and will until it’s done. Not from the skills he learned in a short course at a community college when he needed to change careers because he got laid off. No, from the skills he learned building the finest automobiles in the world for a decade of work right here in Missouri.

So, as we begin this enterprise of beginning to compete for the new jobs, beginning to compete for the new vehicles, I want you to know that each and every day my self and the other fine officials here get up knowing that we have the best thing to sell in negotiation of anybody anywhere. We got you. The hard workin’ plain speakin’ people of the Midwest.

I’ll pledge to you that I will not get up any morning ever forgettin’ what my job is and we’ll do everything, everything in our power to protect what we have to build a future for you and America. [voice: “Yeah!”] Thank you and God bless. [cheers] [applause]

Photo by Blue Girl.

This afternoon Blue Girl, RBH, and I attended a “Save Our Jobs Rally” at the Penn Valley Community College Gym in Kansas City sponsored by the United Auto Workers and the Automobile Dealers Association.

I know what you’re thinking. A looming depression makes for strange bedfellows, doesn’t it?

Congressman Dennis Moore (D-Kansas) (center) and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Missouri) (right).

We estimated the number in attendance to be between 600 and 700. Keep in mind that we’re not exactly expert at estimating crowd size.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s office issued the following in a release before the rally:

“The global financial crisis is crippling the availability of credit for the automakers, their suppliers, their dealers and consumers,” said Congressman Cleaver. “As our local auto plants extend their work stoppages, it is quite possible one or more of the domestic automakers could collapse. No one can afford American auto makers going bankrupt, least of all the 7,200 men and women who work at the Fairfax and Claycomo plants, the thousands who work for auto dealers in the area or the tens of thousands of retirees. These are our neighbors, friends and family and they are in trouble.”

“However frustrating things in Washington are right now, they pale in comparison to the insecurity, fear and anxiety being felt by millions of workers who are either standing in the unemployment line or looking for a pink slip with every paycheck. So, while we shake our heads and stomp our feet in the Capitol, our Congressional troubles are trivial compared to the peril faced by far too many we serve. We will hear from the families impacted directly by this terrible economy on Sunday,” said Cleaver.

Governmental leaders in attendance included Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and Congressman Dennis Moore, all who addressed the crowd. The Mayor of Independence, Missouri; the Mayor of Kansas City, Kansas; several state officials from Kansas; several Missouri state representatives, and a number of city council members from Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas were also in attendance. A representative of the Automobile Dealers Association also spoke to the crowd at some length.    

Jeff Wright, president of UAW Local 249 is interviewed by the local ABC affiliate.

UAW retirees.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) (right).

Bridgette Williams, President of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver remained past the end of the rally until the last individual who wanted to talk with him had left.

The impetus for the rally was for these governmental leaders to express their support for automotive workers and their industry.

There is a palpable fear that the current political spin (and conventional wisdom) in Washington will enable Congress to ignore the current serious needs of the automotive industry. The common theme from every speaker was that the survival of the automotive industry is absolutely essential for the good of the American worker and the American economy,

That stands for Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, you guys! And it’s what the UAW just recently agreed to for management of their employee health and retirement benefits. 

By definition, a VEBA is nothing more than a federally recognized non-profit 501 © (9) corporation set up to insure that health care, pension, unemployment or other benefits are routinely paid out to workers who are covered by the trust.  And, according to Guidestar, a non-profit monitoring service, there are as many as 2,700 VEBAS already in existence for union and non-union employees in industries ranging from steel to utilities and telecommunications.

The trust (VEBA) is generally funded up front by the employer entity in return for a release from responsibility, from the employee entity, for the current and future health and retirement benefits of their workers.  The funding is usually about 60 – 70% of what businesses project they will spend on health and retirement benefits for these employees presently and in the future. Maybe not a bad option, providing that the trust is adequately funded, that the economy continues to grow and that stock market advances outpace health care cost increases. Pushing the VEBA option in the particular case of GM was worker fear of seeing their jobs outsourced if the automaker continued to be hamstrung by the health care premium burden.  And in the case of bankruptcy, a real threat for GM, everything would be gone anyway, job and benefits. No small wonder that VEBA ruled.

Have your eyes glazed over yet?  It gets easier…or maybe harder depending on your perspective.

  For those of you in union shops with hardcore benefits contracts valiantly negotiated through long days and nights, I predict that VEBA’s are the wave of your future.  With the highly publicized UAW joining of the crowd already 2700 strong, businesses and manufacturers are going to jump on this bandwagon because health benefits are one of their most expensive operating costs. As for those of us with a verbally negotiated promise of health insurance at the time of our hire, we are sure to see a lessening of benefit, as well as, an expectation for us to assume increasingly higher percentages of the premium, until the obligation is moved entirely to our shoulders.  No more employer-based health care.  Instead we can have HSA’s or some equivalent.  That is a Health Savings Account.  Any amount that you contribute will likely be from pretax income and that is all the preferential treatment you will get. Period.  For really serious illness, you will also carry a high deductible insurance policy that you will purchase at an equally high premium.  See, it got easier, didn’t it.  It is what David Brooks of the NYT calls  “the new social contract”.

The Republican noise machine will shout that eliminating employer based insurance and giving individuals a tax benefit with which they must purchase insurance and care via their HSA will miraculously lower costs and improve health care access.  It will repeat endlessly  the talking points about  Democratic Socialized Medicine plans and how they will be the ruination of our good friends, the “in charge of everything including all the money” insurance industry. 

But according to TruthDig;

None of the leading Democratic contenders proposes a federally run system-such as Medicare to solve the coverage dilemma.  If anything, most current Democratic plans are weaker than anything the party has offered since Harry Truman proposed national health insurance.

Still, this development just might turn the proposals of these Democratic contenders upside down because just who will have the wherewithal to purchase the alternative private insurance laid out in their plans. Most everyone might opt for the government plan. If so, would that more quickly lead to a single payer system as envisioned by John Edwards.  Or would the feds pay a subsidy to insurance to ensure perpetuation of the private system.  These are unknowns.  But for now, the Democratic Party is directly on course to nominate a candidate for President who will not propose the single payer plan that we need, but instead propose a plan to maintain the health insurance industry’s place at the table  and condemn Americans to another fifteen years in health care hell.

Health Care on AFL rank and file are increasingly wary of the VEBA (Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association) proposed by GM, Ford and Chrysler, for the purpose of ridding their corporations of the health insurance drag.  They worry that the plan may go broke, as did similar plans set up for Caterpillar and Detroit Diesel in the 1990’s. The VEBA would take $100 billion off the automakers books and in return the big three are proposing to fund the trust at 60% to 70% of these projected costs. United Steelworkers, the representing union, for Goodyear Tire and Rubber employees, recently negotiated a VEBA that Goodyear will fund with $1 billion in cash and company shares. Since a VEBA is a trust fund that earns by investing, the danger exists that if the investments go south, the VEBA risks going belly up leaving workers with nothing.  That is what happened with Caterpillar and now the legal system hums with lawsuits to determine just who is going to provide the retirees with the health care plans they were promised.

Writing in the NYT, David Brooks claims that the old employer based benefit contract, born in the 1940’s, is no longer a viable arrangement for health care funding, and states that this issue of funding will become the primary domestic debate of the near future. He dismisses the “liberals” who chase an elusive Single Payer plan.

Some liberals, believing that government should step in as employers withdraw, support a European-style, single-payer system health care system. This would be fine if we were Europeans. But Americans, who are more individualistic and pluralistic, will not likely embrace a system that forces them to defer to the central government when it comes to making fundamental health care choices.

Well, I don’t know what planet he lives on, but here on Earth there are about 47 million pluralistic individualistic Americans who would simply like to have fundamental health care. The rest of us have been trained by insurance to accept what they give us and, if brave enough, fight for what they owe us.

But Brooks is not alone with this proposal.  He draws his opinions from the Heritage Foundation framework and cites in particular, Stuart Butler, a vice-president at Heritage. Participating in a social policy project coordinated by the Brookings Institute, and called The Hamilton Project.  Butler’s vision [http://www.brookings…] calls for basic security while demanding reciprocity, ie, if you contribute to society, you are protected from catastrophe.  He wants to foster personal responsibility, stimulate private savings and calls for self-insurance from those who can afford it. He would like to form “insurance exchanges” that could be sponsored by entities such as unions and churches that we would join according to our preference. Then he pretty much recommends that we be sorted and slotted according to our ability to pay and proceed from that point with an insurance plan according to means.  And although he doesn’t come right out and say it, it is clear that he wants to turn Medicare into a means tested program also. Brooks calls it The New Social Contract.  It is probably the get business off the hook for employer health benefit contract.

But whatever it is called, VEBA seems to be a pathway to this goal. The UAW contract with the big three expires on September 14.  If the UAW goes VEBA, look for that to become a trend. Vacuums will open up in health care administration and the conservatives are already prepared to fill them.

( – promoted by Clark)

Grocery store workers in St. Louis voted overwhelmingly this week to accept new contracts with Schnucks, Shop n Save and Dierbergs.  While members of the United Food and Commercial Workers will receive a moderate pay raise and an expansion of some benefits, they do so by accepting to share the cost of their health insurance premiums. The new contract states that workers’ share of premiums will range from $4.00 weekly for employee only coverage to $12.00 weekly for family coverage.  The overall attitude among workers is that considering the cost of health care, this looks like a bargain.

More below the flip. – Clark

The UAW is also facing an employer-initiated proposal to overhaul the health insurance benefit currently provided to employees as part of their contract.  The proposal being offered by GM, Ford and Chrysler asks that the Union be willing to discuss the creation and administration of a health care trust which would provide benefits for active and retired workers. Creation of the trust would take $100 billion in health care liabilities off the automakers’ books. The carmakers would then contribute a large amount, in the tens of millions to create the trust.  If the union members should reject this offer, they risk wage and benefit cuts and loss of other employee perks. Strikes to protest these cuts would likely force at least one of the big three into bankruptcy. History on this plan has not proved  favorable.

The US is recognized as offering the gold standard in health care.  It is also recognized as the most expensive health care system in the world.  The union concessions noted above are but a drop in the barrel insofar as solutions to the high cost of care.  But wait! Here come the lending giants with zero interest financing.  Medical financing has become one of the fastest growing areas of consumer credit.  Of course not everyone is eligible for the zero interest option.  Only for the creditworthy, it will offer no help to the 47 million uninsured in difficult financial circumstances.  Even if you are creditworthy and get the zero interest option, if you should default, you will be subject to a 20% or more interest rate – such as the default penalty on a credit card.  If you don’t qualify for the zero interest option and need a longer-term loan, it can be had for an interest rate of only 12%.  Look for an increase in personal bankruptcies as a result of this fabulous solution to the health care conundrum.  And forgetful me, I almost forgot to mention, the credit card industry will now demand a seat at the table when health care reform is discussed.

Thank goodness that politicos on the presidential loading ramp have their very own solution for the funding hodgepodge that controls the gate of gold standard health care.  Some are serious, some are cutsey and most of them not worth mentioning. The Edwards plan comes closer than any other proposal to meet the health care needs of this country causing  the PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) to recently challenge Senator Edwards to  “eliminate the middleman, make our businesses more competitive globally, so that this country could afford health care for everyone.” Kudos goes to Gov. Mike Huckabee for the best non-answer.  It is simple, give every citizen the same insurance that legislators have or give every legislator the same insurance that everyone else has, he said with a sly grin, His interviewer struggled, but failed to come up with, a follow up question.

In the end the health care problem could reform itself. Right now 64% of our health care system is financed by public money, which includes federal and state taxes, property taxes and tax subsidies. With these monies, we pay for Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and insurance coverage for public employees (including teachers), elected officials, military personnel, etc.  Hefty tax subsidies are also paid to employers to help pay for their employees health insurance.  About 17% of care is financed by all of us via out of pocket payments, such as co pay, deductibles, people paying out of pocket for health insurance or health care, etc.  Only about 19% of health care is attributable to employer health insurance.  If employers contract themselves out of health insurance provision, maybe we will be able to see beyond the fog and realize there is no earthly reason for insurance industry interference.  We might not want to fork over tax money, only to have the Feds pay insurance 30% just to let us know we will not be covered. We might just go ahead and excuse big insurance, big pharma, big politics and now big banking, from the health care table. But health care is projected to be a $4 trillion industry by 2015 so, don’t expect them to go quietly into the night.

About 300 people rallied in downtown St. Louis yesterday in support of higher fuel economy standards for automobiles. Among them were US Senator Claire McCaskill, US Congressman Russ Carnahan, and leaders of the UAW. It sounds great – Democratic leaders joining with organized labor to demand more environmentally friendly policies from the big automakers. The catch? They’re teaming up in support of the weaker standard favored in the House – an increase from the current CAFE standard of 27.5 miles per gallon to 32 mpg by 2022, instead of the Senate’s version with an increase to 35 mpg by 2020.

A representative of the auto industry, Barry Felrice of Chrysler, was present. He acknowledged that the auto industry has historically claimed its inability to meet previous standards (both emissions AND safety), only to pull it together in the end. But Felrice asked “What if the auto industry is right this time?”

What if, indeed. Is Felrice holding local autoworker jobs hostage?  “Lower CAFE standards or they get the ax!”

Here’s another “What if?” scenario for Felrice to contemplate. Shocks to the oil supply cause gas prices to skyrocket and long lines to form at gas stations. Americans increasingly turn to fuel efficient foreign cars designed for countries with more expensive gasoline. American automakers are forced to layoff thousands of workers. Guess what? It already happened in the ’70s and ’80s.

Raising CAFE standards isn’t a panacea for global warming and our dependence on foreign oil, but without more fuel efficient automobiles, it’s going to be incredibly difficult. Transportation is 28% of US greenhouse gas emissions. Raising CAFE standards to 40 mpg by 2016 could save the US 4 million barrels of oil a day  – that’s 20% of our current total demand for oil. Combined with other “wedges” that increase our energy efficiency (like increased reliance on renewable energy for our electricity production), suddenly the twin terrors of increasing reliance on foreign oil and global warming become more manageable. It’s a shame that Claire McCaskill and Russ Carnahan are stuck on the wrong side of this issue. It’s even more disappointing that they are pretending to be part of the solution.