Results of KVO's Delegates Assembly

The Delegates Assembly of KVO went very well. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces. Delegates had to pick five out of twenty proposals for their top choices for health care reform. The proposals were gleaned from the health care stories from each of KVO's member organizations. The top 5 proposals are: Health care is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT stemming from the sanctity of human life. A JUST SOCIETY must ensure that everyone receives compassionate, comprehensive and competent health care, independent of employment, age, health or family history. Health care should emphasize PREVENTION, and preventive medical care should be covered by every patient’s health care policy. AFFORDABILITY: Everyone pays on a sliding scale, based on financial ability. Special efforts should be made to provide care for geographic areas and populations that have been UNDERSERVED, such as rural areas, inner cities, and impoverished communities. Insurance companies and other third party payers, the pharmaceutical industry, and other commercial interests should not function as barriers to care, or impede the provider/patient relationship in making medical decisions. Representing MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 were Bruce Hodsdon, 1989's president; Melanie Collins, member of the child care provider's unit, 1989's newest bargaining unit; and Scott Neumeyer, an Area II director. Scott also gave testimony by presenting his health care story to the delegation. His story is very scary as well as very enlightening. It is scary in that he is very young and has two major diseases. These diseases came at a time when he had no health insurance. He and his wife made those tough choices of buying medicine, buying food, paying for the lights and buying oil. The enlightening bit is that he is Canadian born. When he came to the US, he thought it very odd to have to pay for a doctor's visit; very odd that there was a "VISA" sign on the door. MEPASA was also represented with delegates Joyce Gagnon, Dee Strout, Roberta Record and Julie Moulton. (Roberta and Julie are also my fellow Voices Institute graduates. It was so nice to see them.) KVO also had a Health Care Panel that presented insightful information on the state of health care in this country. The panel consisted of: Doug Clopp, Policy Analyst, Consumers for Affordable Health Care (CAHC); Glenn Beamer, Director, Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center; Kerry Sirois, Administrator, Mount St. Joseph Holistic Care Community; Peter Crockett, Health Care Organizer, Central Maine Labor Council (AFL-CIO). Next comes Phase 3: Candidates Forum on Health Care On September 28, 2008, KVO will present our health care agenda to legislative candidates and ask them how they would work to support our health care goals if elected. KVO will continue working beyond the fall of 2008 to ensure that everyone has access to quality, affordable health care. For more information on this campaign and other things KVO is working on, check out KVO's website at http://www.kvo.org/ or contact KVO Lead Organizer Dan Koehler at dan.koehler2@gmail.com or get in touch with me helen.hnsn@gmail.com to find out how you can help the KVO Health Care Team.

What's Happening. . .

Today is a big day. We are starting our working sessions with Mila Kofman, Maine's Superintendent of Insurance, to look into pooling direct care workers in Maine for group health insurance. I am very excited about this! I am going to use the Coke case when they ask me what makes direct care workers so different from other workers. And, later today, the Kennebec Valley Organization is holding a Delegate Assembly to have delegates vote on healthcare reform proposals that KVO supports and then the healthcare team will bring forth to members to the State Legislature and Congress with the upcoming election. Get this, I'm co-chairing this event!! I'm excited about the work we're doing. I got a call last night from an SEIU organizer from Local 503 in Oregon who is gathering names of doctors, nurses, cna's, direct care workers, etc. to unite them to push forward healthcare reform at the federal level. He's going to get in touch with more information. I think SEIU is calling it HealthCare United. If any of you are interested in this united front, please let me know. I'll keep you posted as to how all this goes and the progress made.

For-profit Health Care Isn't Working

MAINE VOICES The problem isn't the wealthy or the poor, it's the working families that can't get coverage. CHRISTOPHER T. BARTLETT, Special to the Press Herald June 11, 2008 about the author Dr. Christopher T. Bartlett (DoctorBartlett@mac.com) is a family physician in Portland. As a family practice physician caring for patients here in Maine, I worry that the health-care system itself is in critical condition. One would think that most of my office time and energy would be focused on patients and their medical concerns. In truth, much of the time that my nurse and I spend each day is focused on finances. In the exam room, I have to ask which drug my patient can afford. Has my patient met the deductible? How can we present a case to the insurance company to get the surgical procedure paid for? While most wealthy people and most impoverished people receive good care, a large population in the middle often has to do without any medical care. Many of my patients have worked and gone to school in an effort to get off MaineCare and welfare. When they "succeed" and get an entry-level job, they often find they no longer qualify for MaineCare and now must shoulder the burden of their health-care expenses alone. When low-income patients apply for "free medicines" through drug companies, they often send me their entire application packet, complete with personal financial details. I am uncomfortable seeing their finances laid bare to me. I can look upon naked bodies all day; I am trained for that – but I shudder when a tax form or balance sheet of such intimate, mortifying detail is laid before me. My discomfort with doing more and more accountancy instead of medicine has bothered me for years, but I realized the other day why it bothers me so. I believe that what is wrong with health care today is the profit motive – attracting entrepreneurs at every stage of health-care delivery. I believe that capitalism and free markets have made this country great. Certain essential services, however, require other kinds of solutions. To subject these essential services to market forces could compromise our well-being. Let me give you a few examples where this may be true. If your house is on fire, you call the fire department. Highly trained professional firefighters rush to your house with multimillion-dollar equipment to extinguish your fire. Nobody asks for a co-pay. Nobody asks to see your "fire insurance card," and nobody fills out paperwork for prior authorization. This is a service that we as a society have decided we each need and deserve, and we pay for it through taxes. Police protect us in the same fashion – no charge, no co-pay. Post office? Everyone pays the same rate for a stamp. Roads are built, borders secured, foods inspected, and our armed forces stand at the ready. Why is something as important as medical care treated so differently? Why do so many of our friends and neighbors go without basic health care because they cannot afford it? When you look at the many insurance companies and government programs paying for medical care, imagine how many different people it takes to push around all the different forms, publish all the rule books and pay people from CEOs to secretaries. It's no wonder our system is so expensive and inefficient. As a simple family doctor, I don't have a prescription to fix this problem. I am trained to recognize disease, and our health-care system appears to be gravely ill. We all have a stake in keeping this patient alive. My sense is that removing the duplication of services, high administrative overhead and profit motivation is a good first step. How best to accomplish this is an enormous challenge. I think we need to talk amongst ourselves, talk with our legislators and work for a system that provides a "healthy" health care system. Copyright © 2008 Blethen Maine Newspapers

One Delegate's Take on SEIU Convention 2008

I was a delegate to the 2008 Justice for All, SEIU convention and there are at least two completely opposite views of what happened. One view says that Union Democracy triumphed and the other claims that this is the biggest power grab in Union history since Jimmy Hoffa. The SEIU changed its constitution in Puerto Rico. Yes, locals will be sending more money to union headquarters in D.C. Is this a power grab or will SEIU Leaders use the cash to run a campaign to elect Barack Obama president and send pro-union lawmakers to Congress? No matter whether you think this is a power grab or the smartest move since the invention of the wheel, Union Leaders will use the money to elect a labor friendly government and pass labor friendly laws. Whether they want power or justice for all they know only a labor friendly government will allow the growth of Unions. No matter what your take on it, Andy Stern is too smart not to do exactly as he claimed. We can debate Andy's motives but his goals are the same as ours, better jobs and representation locally and in Congress.The cash will not go to heavily unionized states because they will already be voting Democrat. The cash will move to swing states like Florida and Michigan where the extra money may make the biggest difference. Remember we have suffered eight years of George Bush for the lack of a handful of votes in Florida. International President Andy Stern’s agenda at the 2008 convention, called “Justice for All” will consolidate bargaining and organizing efforts at the national level. This will possibly limit the power of local unions but at the same time give the union greater leverage with multi-state or international employers. Just imagine a heavily unionized Maine, where tens of thousands of SEIU brothers and sisters would tell the legislature they needed to treat SEIU employees fairly or go home.UHW, United Health Care West opposed Stern’s plan. That opposition grew out of a fight over whether information published on the UHW web site should have been kept to an in house fight or whether the members needed to know that there were questions about contracts being signed at the National level with little or no rank and file input. According to UHW, Stern made secret deals with corporations, keeping members in the dark about the trade-offs he agreed to. According to Stern UHW harmed the SEIU by taking an internal argument public and was responsible for losing a huge campaign to organize nurses. Stern claimed at the convention that his plan will decentralize union power. What Andy didn’t say was that power does not tolerate a vacuum. Where member involvement is weak the local Union leadership is forced to make decisions and the International is forced to make more decisions that should be made at the local level. If the locals do not have an involved membership decisions will be made only by the few.Is Stern’s plan the biggest power grab in a labor union since the Teamsters? Millions of dollars will move from local Unions to SEIU headquarters in Washington, D.C. Is the plan the smartest move that could be made, using the only power politicians seem to recognize; money?I say it is about consolidating power and it doesn't matter whether Andy Stern gains power. This move will consolidate Union power as never before. When one man can make the same wage as 500 or a thousand or more of his employees by destroying good jobs and outsourcing American jobs we need the money to fight back and we need it in one place with two goals. Elect Democrats and hold them responsible for keeping their promises.Justice for All is a great slogan, yet it is far more than a slogan. Without good pay, benefits, and respect for American workers the right will continue to use the few good Union jobs left as a target, blaming Unions for all the lost jobs, all the tax breaks for the rich. We need to support others if we expect to get their support in the voting booth. .There will be massive shift union finances. Half of the SEIU budget will go to the national effort; the SEIU calls the “Accountability Project.”The SEIU goal is to elect pro-labor members of Congress, spending money to offset the buying power of the corporations and then spend $10 million more “to take on elected officials who fail to live up to their promises.” If a politician runs on a pro-labor promise they will live up to the promise or they will feel the heat.50 percent of the national and local organizing budgets, including half of the SEIU staff will be used for the “Accountability Project.” Accountability Project is a nice name. Another name I heard was "payback is a bit*h".In Maine we may not see the same 50% hit in budget and staff due to our affiliation agreement, the long term good relationship with the SEIU now handled by Bruce Hodsdon as our president and International Executive Board member. If we don’t get good politicians here and in Washington you can kiss your pay and benefits goodbye. Just this year one of our so called friends in the legislature voted down the cliff bill even though the evidence was there to show the financial impact would have been minimal. Our so called friends took nearly thirty million dollars from our health care plan; they would love to figure out how to get their hands on our pension funds. Funds that have been far better invested than any State fund. Your delegates knew there are union members opposed to Stern’s plan and made any decision on what was best for Maine and then what was best for the rest.A lot of members think our dues should stay at home; all decisions made locally. George Bush tried to sell port security to an Arab country. Would you put it past a politician to outsource the DMV?There were no easy, perfect decisions. Your delegates did not agree on every vote. But be assured, no one tried to tell any of your delegates how to vote. The one complaint I heard about our President is that when asked for a decision on a vote, he suggested that the delegate study the issue and make the best decision they could for the members that elected them. That is Union democracy. I am not a cheerleader for Andy Stern. I would never cross the road if I saw him driving my way, but I am convinced focusing this money and power in order to hold politicians accountable is the right move. from UnionMaine blog

SEIU hits 2 Million Member Mark

The SEIU has reached a historic level of two million members. In Maine many MSEA members have asked why we organize outside of our original group, state employees. The victories in the old south where North Carolina state government is now SEIU. The raises gained in so many other locations. The reason behind these wins is because the public is beginning to wake up to find out that tearing Unions down will only guarantee low wages for all.The SEIU is becoming a real force in politics and we can expect to start seeing results after November with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act if we don't get complacent and sit home and let the third Bush term happen. The country must become US. The votes will be with us if the public starts to share the benefits and respect of being a part of something that cares about them, not just the botttom line. from UnionMaine blog

Thank You to MSEA-SEIU

I want to thank Bruce, Ginette and Tim for inviting me to the SEIU Convention 2008.

This was my first time at an SEIU convention of this size, all three divisions of SEIU were there. The Property Services Division; the Public Services Division, of which MSEA-SEIU is under; and the Healthcare Division all had delegates.

It was real interesting to see the resolutions and amendments to the SEIU Constitution and By-Laws unfold and open up for debate.

Three committees, Resolutions, Program and Law considered the resolutions and amendments submitted by the International Executive Board, of which our own president, Bruce Hodsdon, is a member; and various locals throughout SEIU, before the delegates voted on them. The committees considered the resolutions and amendments, submitted their recommendations to the convention, then the delegates from SEIU Locals voted to adopt or pass them. If the resolutions and amendments were adopted, they became part of SEIU’s Constitution.

The floor would open up for some very heated and interesting debates among delegates.

A few of the resolutions I was very interested in were ones concerning health care for everyone and the ones for SEIU to have a healthcare local in every state.

The delegates voted to adopt a resolution that would throw SEIU support behind national healthcare reform, but not specifically HR676, the single-payer healthcare plan. Local 1021 tried to get the wording, “SEIU shall activily campaign for HR676 to establish a strong, progressive role in the healthcare debate and will urge support of similar legislation in the States. By doing so we will set a benchmark for the healthcare system we believe will serve people best.” into the resolution by amending it. This amendment did not pass and the original resolution was approved.

What the resolution does do is get SEIU members actively involved by participating in a nationwide bus tour, The Road to American Health Care, http://roadtohealthcare.org; help build and grow Healthcare United, an organization of both union and non-union nurses and healthcare workers; secure pledges and commitments from key members of Congress; take on the enemies of health care like John McCain; build strong healthcare coalitions with allies and strategic alliances; help identify 1,000 members who are healthcare reform leaders among SEIU member political organizers, leaders and activists; commit to making 10 million phone calls to members of Congress; raising $10 million for post-election political accountability; committing 50% of growth budgets and 50% of non-growth staff during the first 100 days of the 111th Congress to pass National Healthcare Reform and the Employee Free Choice Act. It sounds like a lot, but SEIU can do it.

This resolution was originally sponsored by the International Executive Board and was heard in the Resolutions Committee. The committee changed the language some before they recommended it to the full convention. The two resolutions specifically naming HR676 were considered by the Resolutions Committee but not recommended to the full convention. One resolution on HR676 was submitted by Local 1021 and the other submitted by Local 1199UHE (United Health Care East)

The second resolution that was of special interest to me was one that creates one Home Care Local per state. This resolution was submitted by Local 880 and was heard by the Program Committee. They considered it then recommended it to the full convention. The Program Committee also considered two resolutions pertaining to SEIU Homecare and Long-term care workers in California, uniting them to give them one voice. These two were submitted by Locals 6434 and 4034.
The Program Committee combined the best of the three resolutions into one. This resolution would create one health care local in each state, giving a united voice to home care workers, unifying workers to have one voice to gain better funding through Medicare, which in turn gains better pay and benefits. After strong discussion and debate and a lot of talk against this resolution from the Locals in California, the full convention passed this resolution.

It unifies separate Home Care Locals in states where there are more than one, like in California. Here in Maine, I’m glad we’ve got Local 771 under MSEA-SEIU. I’m glad that we are small, but growing slowly and do not have the rift between locals like out in California. Where funding is dependent on state and federal budgets, I’m glad to have a strong, unified, SEIU voice at the state and federal level.

It was great seeing a sea of purple, it was great seeing Barack Obama receiving endorsement from SEIU, it was great hooking up and swapping contact information with folks in other locals, like 503 out of Oregon and 1199 UHE in New York and 1199UNE United Healthcare New England from Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Again, I must thank Bruce Hodsdon, MSEA-SEIU President; Ginette Rivard, MSEA-SEIU Vice-President; and Tim Belcher MSEA-SEIU Executive Director for the invitation to this wonderful experience of the SEIU Convention 2008.

Helen Hanson
President, Local 771
MSEA-SEIU Local 1989

Barack Obama speaks to SEIU Convention 2008

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/462637