Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture
Supreme Court Could Kill Collective Bargaining Rights
Anti-worker forces are at it again. In 2011, they worked alongside right-wing governors to push through sneak attacks on our collective bargaining rights. In 2012, they passed destructive “right to work” bills. Now they’re poised to eradicate the rights of home care workers to band together for a voice on the job.
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a group with a political agenda to weaken the power of working people, is challenging the right of public home care providers to collectively bargain. This extremist right-wing group with ties to the ultra-conservative Koch Brothers and ALEC has brought the case (Harris v. Quinn) all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Roberts court – which has ruled in favor of corporations time and time again – we’re hoping for the best, but we’re bracing for the worst.
The timing is urgent. The Supreme Court will issue a decision in the coming weeks – and possibly as early as this Monday! Sign our petition to stand with care workers now!
If the right wing has no shame about attacking teachers and firefighters, we shouldn’t be surprised they’re trying to strip hardworking care workers of their rights. Home care workers are truly everyday heroes. From administering medicine to preparing meals, they allow millions of seniors and people with disabilities to live independently at home with dignity and respect. If a bad ruling comes down, it will make it easier for home care workers to lose hard-won gains in hours, benefits, training opportunities and wages – and compromise their ability to provide the life-changing care that our loved ones deserve.
These frontline care providers, who are predominantly women, have been fighting to improve their insufficient job standards through years of campaigning. Hundreds of thousands of these caregivers have now earned collective bargaining rights, and nearly two million home care workers finally secured the right to earn a minimum wage and overtime just last year. Now is the moment to raise these workers up – not cut them down.
We all need the freedom to have a voice at work, to speak up for decent jobs and good services. We can’t afford to stay silent.
Everything is at stake. A bad decision could not only hurt care workers directly but will end up negatively impacting families and communities nationwide, compromising care standards at the moment our aging nation needs it most. And if our friends and neighbors can’t join together in strong unions, it will become harder for all workers to gain better wages and benefits, more job security and safer workplaces. This fight belongs to all of us now.
Make your voice heard: Stand with care workers – and against the right wing – today.
Thanks for fighting for what’s right,
Hilary and the entire Jobs With Justice team
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the Amazon
Chainsaws and bulldozers are devouring the Amazon rainforest — home to jaguars, parrots, and sloths.
Can you chip in $5 today to protect the Amazon and other threatened ecosystems worldwide?
We’re just $7,000 away from our goal!
An area bigger than the state of Texas is missing from the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
A place where jaguars, parrots, and sloths used to roam, fly, and climb — where hundreds of indigenous groups once lived — is gone. The result of decades of man made destruction.
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Scandals
What Conservatives Should Do If They Are Really Concerned About Veterans Health Care
The scandal at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs over long wait times to receive health care and fraudulent reporting by hospital administrators is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately. Yesterday, a preliminary report from the VA Inspector General confirmed many of the initial problems, finding that:
a) at least 1,700 veterans waiting for care were purposely withheld from the official electronic wait list because administrators knew they could not receive care within a 14-day period that was the goal;
b) at the Phoenix VA hospital at the center of the controversy, the average wait time for an initial primary care appointment was in fact 115 days, and not 24 days as reported by the Phoenix hospital;
c) there were multiple paper wait lists used to track patients in addition to the electronic wait list that were invisible to federal oversight.
Other reports coming out indicate that “cooking the books” is a much broader problem within the VA.
Secretary Eric Shinseki has called the findings “reprehensible” and is “not waiting to set things straight.” In fact, Shinseki, a disabled Vietnam veteran who served in the Army for 38 years, has fought an uphill battle to reform the VA bureaucracy in a number of ways, according to experts at the Center for American Progress. But that hasn’t stopped numerous elected officials from calling for his resignation, including, at last count, 74 Republican members of Congress.
We all agree that veterans deserve the best possible care. But if conservatives were truly outraged at the prospect of veterans not receiving the health care they deserve, there’s another step they could take right now to expand coverage to not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands of veterans, and almost 5 million Americans overall. Instead, they are standing directly in the way.
There are over a quarter million uninsured veterans in states that are currently refusing to accept federal funding to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. These veterans are not receiving delayed care, they aren’t receiving any care at all. While many people assume that all veterans have health benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs, as of 2013 only two-thirds were eligible and just one-third were enrolled. The map below shows a state-by-state breakdown of those affected:
Conservative legislators have been quick to condemn the VA’s actions, but that hasn’t stopped them from voting again and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act that expands coverage to millions of people, including veterans. And it hasn’t stopped them from defending state lawmakers who continue to refuse to expand Medicaid under the ACA and deny coverage to veterans and millions of other Americans.
BOTTOM LINE: The scandal at the VA is serious, and those at fault should be held accountable. But those who would repeal the Affordable Care Act are at the heart of another scandal: over 250,000 veterans in 24 states have no access to care at all because of conservative lawmakers’ refusal to expand Medicaid.
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Drugs Diet and injuries
05/28/2014 11:00 AM EDT
May is Hepatitis Awareness Month, a fitting time to focus on liver health. Drugs and dietary supplements pose a potential danger and have been responsible for drug-induced liver injuries. FDA is working to prevent those injuries.
Read this Consumer Update to learn what FDA is doing to prevent those injuries.
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