Employee Free Choice Act

AR: Health Care Citizens' Panel

Last Monday December 14th the Arkansas AFL-CIO sponsored a Citizen's Forum on Health Care at the Arkansas Studies Institute in Little Rock. The forum convened a distinguished panel of local experts and community leaders to hear testimony from Arkansans who are struggling under the current health care system. Panelists included Judge Wendell Griffen, Rev. Steve Copley, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Bill Kopsky, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Elisabeth Burak, Arkansas Advocate for Children and Families, and Ricky Belk, Arkansas AFL-CIO. Witnesses included Glenn Nishimura, self-employed consultant, Anna Kay Williams, VP of Communications Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, Mary Ann Hopkins, President CWA Local 6502, Matt Fair, Business Manager UA Local 155, and Kelly Arellanes, CWA retiree. More from KATV, KARK, the Democrat Gazette, and the Arkansas Times. Read the full report.

AR: Health Care Vigil

Last week on Tuesday evening, local residents and faith leaders held a vigil at the Quapaw Quarter Methodist Church in Little Rock to ask Senator Lincoln to place the financial security of Arkansas families and businesses ahead of insurance company profits. The room was packed as people held candles as prayed for Senator Lincoln's vote. Thank you to all that attended!

AR: Former Health Insurance Executive Wendell Potter Visits Little Rock

Watch Wendell Potter, part 1

Watch Wendell Potter, part 2

Watch Wendell Potter, part 3

Last Monday night at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Wendell Potter, a former Cigna executive turned health insurance industry whistleblower, addressed a community forum on health insurance reform and detailed abuses of the industry. Potter spoke about his understanding of industry insider practices insurers employ to dump the sick in order to protect stock prices. Potter also gave an account of his own personal journey leading up to his decision to leave the industry and why he is now advocating for health insurance reform. Read more from the Blue Arkansas blogger interview with Wendell Potter and John Brummett's column.

AR: Thank You Events in Jonesboro, Little Rock and Forrest City

A week or so ago, Congressmen Berry and Snyder did the right thing - they voted in favor of the health care reform bill in the House. To thank them, we held events in Jonesboro, Little Rock and Forrest City with AFSCME, HCAN and other health care reform partners. If you live in one of their districts, please take the time to call their offices (1-877-3-AFL-CIO) and thank them for this important vote!

AR: Health Care Reform Can't Wait - Call In Day

Last Thursday was the national Call In Day for health care reform. Thank you to everyone that participated, including various unions! We generated hundreds of calls and letters to Senator Lincoln. Some of the places that were leafleted include Cooper Tire in Texarkana (USW), Whirlpool in Ft Smith, (USW), Sara Lee Bakery in Hope (BCTGM) and UPS Little Rock (IBT). Phone calls were also made from several union meetings, including IAFF, AEA. UA, and USW.

AR: Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice Dinner

Last Saturday, the Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice held their annual dinner at the First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock. The Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice is a partnership to mobilize the religious and labor communities, and serve as an advocate for the rights of workers and their families. The guest speaker is Kim Bobo, Executive Director Interfaith Worker Justice (national). Awards were also given to: FAITH AWARD - Rev. Gene McElroy, Archview Baptist Church, LABOR AWARD - Co-Awards - Lee Pritchard, Retired UAW & Carroll Gaither, Retired USW, COMMUNITY AWARD - State Senator Joyce Elliott, and STUDENT JUSTICE AWARD - Amanda Boulden, Senior at Henderson State. Congratulations to the ICWJ for a great event!

AR: Health Insurance Day of Action

Last Tuesday, several groups working on health insurance reform came together to hold a press conference in Little Rock, and a march to Senator Pryor's office to deliver letters for reform. Speakers included Alan Hughes of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, John Noonan of AFSCME, Candis Collins of HCAN, and Nicole Price of Change that Works. That day, over 300,000 phone calls for health insurance reform were made nationally as well. Read more from the Arkansas News Bureau and the Democrat Gazette. Let's keep up the pressure for real health insurance reform!

AR: AFSCME House Calls for Health Care

On Saturday, October 10 in the Old Supreme Court Room at the Arkansas State Capital AFSCME member nurses from around the country were joined by local community members as they hit the streets to go door-to-door for health care reform. Similar canvasses were held simultaneously in nine health care battleground states and featured nurses demanding reform of a system that allows private insurance companies to come in between health care providers and their patients. Read more from Today's THV.

Ally Spotlight- Christopher "Kit" St. John, MECEP Executive Director

Chris St. John, or "Kit" as he prefers to be called, is the Executive Director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy. The Maine Center for Economic Policy advances public policies that help Maine people prosper in a strong, fair and sustainable economy. They strive to do so through high-quality research, analysis, citizen education, and coalition building.

In that capacity, Kit helped explain the economics behind both questions 2 and 4 at the recent Maine AFL-CIO TABOR II & Fair Taxation training. His conclusions were common sense. Both of these measures will either unfairly shift costs or result in harmful reductions in public services, if not both.

Kit explained that Question 2, the Excise tax will eliminate an estimated 86 million dollars from local budgets. That’s money that directly pays for road maintenance and plowing. The cuts will be unfairly given to those that can afford the newest cars, whereas the rest of us will just have to endure. Towns will be forced to try and recoup that lost revenue by raising property taxes.

"TABOR has the potential to be even more devastating" said Kit. The Law is designed to ratchet down spending, cutting services, and devastating our brothers and sisters in the public sector. What's more municipalities will undoubtedly try and stem the loss of services by raising needed funds from elsewhere.

You can get more information from MECEP on TABOR and the Excise Tax here: http://www.mecep.org/view.asp?news=526.

AR Local Union Spotlight: Lobbying in Washington for Health Care Reform

We wrote about David Arellanes of CWA Local 6508, sharing the story of his wife's accident and how the insurance company pushed them into bankruptcy before. David and Kelly were in Washington D.C. last week to lobby for health insurance reform, along with Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes, and CWA local presidents George West and Tom Pevey. Read more from the Arkansas Times and the New York Times.