Seachange Bulletin #118September 15, 2003Seachange Bulletin ArchivesEmail the editorSeachange Bulletin #118: Labor Day NA Good morning. My name is Dana Beth Weinberg. I am a sociologist and a health services researcher at the Schneider Health Policy Institute at the Heller School at Brandeis University. ... I am here today to tell you that the proposed legislation is essential to protect the safety and well-being of nurses and patients. I come to this conclusion after intensive research. The result of this research is my book Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing. You will all be receiving a copy of the book. I conducted this research in 1999 at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. I studied the effect of their merger and subsequent restructuring on nurses. It is important to note that Beth Israel Hospital, before its merger with the Deaconess, was one of the magnet hospitals that you have heard about today. In fact, it was the prototypical magnet hospital; it set the standard. When Beth Israel merged with the Deaconess, the hospital did not reapply for magnet status. Moreover, in the hospital’s financial panic, all of the organizational supports for nursing - those things that given the hospital international reputation and acclaim as an excellent nursing service and a good place for nurses to work - all of those supports were cut and the nursing service completely dismantled. These voluntary structures are extremely fragile. This story is significant today. In the past four years since this research was concluded, similar stories - stories of dissatisfied and burnt out nurses, stories of poor working conditions and danger to patients - have played out in hospitals across Massachusetts and the country. Nurses worry that patients are in danger and that nurses’ own careers and health are at stake. But did hospitals heed nurses’ warnings about understaffing and danger to patients? No. Not in 1999 and not in 2003. ... When we are dealing with people’s lives, quality cannot be voluntary. Edwards proposes program to increase nurses Mike Glover, Associated Press, July 25, 2003 Des Moines - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards is proposing a $3 billion, five-year program to add 100,000 nurses to a profession hard-hit by overworked employees choosing to retire and fewer entering the health care field. ''Our nation is facing a crisis as more nurses leave the profession every day, fewer students train to replace them, and those who remain labor under crushing workloads,'' the North Carolina senator said in remarks prepared for delivery today in Iowa. ... Under Edwards' plan, the government would help pay tuition and fees for 50,000 new nursing students and would create grants aimed at luring veteran nurses back. The program also calls for eliminating mandatory overtime, a chronic complaint of overworked nurses, and creation of high school programs touting the benefits of the profession. Edwards did not say how he would finance the plan. ... Editorial Comment: What nursing needs is accountability by the industry for safe staffing standards, not just more cannon fodder. Mandate and enforce RN-to-patient ratios and adhere to a standard acuity index! Don’t just throw more new nurses into the mix to burn out in a year or two. - SE Labor Group Marks 100th Anniversary California’s Largest RN Organization Ranks High on List of Most Powerful in Healthcare California Nurses Association, August 26, 2003 <http://www.calnurses.org/cna/press/82603.html> On the eve of Labor Day and as it prepares for a grand celebration of its 100th year, the California Nurses Association (CNA) gained new national recognition for its role in the healthcare industry, in particular its role in sponsoring the nation’s first state law mandating minimum nurse-to-patient hospital staffing ratios. In this year’s polling by Modern Healthcare magazine for the 100 "most influential people in healthcare," CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro came in at number 60 - up from number 81 in 2002. In releasing the listing, the magazine’s editors observed: "In California, the push for landmark nurse-to-patient ratios - now scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2004 - was led by the powerful and aggressive California Nurses Association, which represents about 55,000 nurses after breaking away from the more conservative ANA in 1993 (sic) in what is still described as a ‘revolution’ pitting staff nurses against administrators. ... " The observance which is to be held in conjunction with the CNA Biennial House of Delegates and Convention will feature appearance by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, author Barbara Ehrenreich and singer-songwriter Holly Near and others. ... For the list of 100 Most Powerful: <http://www.modernhealthcare.com> Job woes linked to risk of heart attack Michael Lasalandra, Boston Herald, September 4, 2003 <http://theedge.bostonherald.com/healthNews/edgeHealth.bg?articleid=31> People worried about losing their jobs double their risk of having a heart attack, claims a study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Job insecurity raises stress," said lead author Sunmin Lee. "It raises blood pressure and causes a strain on the cardiovascular system." The study followed 36,000 nurses during the early 1990s when hospitals were downsizing and nursing jobs were not as secure as they are today. ... CNA Foundation Wins Major Endowment Grant To Stem Nursing Shortage, Diversify RN Workforce California Nurses Association, September 8, 2003 <http://www.calnurses.org/cna/press/90803.html> The California Endowment has awarded a major $904,000 grant to the California Nurses Foundation, affiliated with the California Nurses Association, that should provide a significant boon to efforts to reduce the nursing shortage and diversify the RN workforce, CNA announced today. Under the grant, the Foundation will work with Catholic Healthcare West, the largest Catholic hospital system in the Western US, to implement a pilot nurse mentoring program at four CHW hospitals ... California Senate Approves CNA-Sponsored Bill to Enforce Landmark RN Staffing Ratio Law California Nurses Association, September 9, 2003 <http://www.calnurses.org/cna/press/90903.html> The State Senate Tuesday passed a bill sponsored by the California Nurses Association that would substantially strengthen hospital industry compliance with the state’s groundbreaking RN-to-patient staffing ratio law. AB 253, introduced by Assembly member Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), won approval in the Senate on a 24-13 vote, and is heading back to the Assembly for final concurrence with a vote expected later this week. The bill would then would go to the governor’s desk. The CNA-Steinberg bill provides for $10,000 fines on hospitals that continue to violate the ratio law, as well as $5,000 fines for other patient safety violations. ... AB 253, which first passed the Assembly in June, also extends the ability of state health officials to conduct unannounced inspections. ... Gathering Sunday in Oakland, Ca. Nurses Rally to Guarantee Defeat For Attempt to Change Overtime Rules California Nurses Association, September 10, 2003 <http://www.calnurses.org/cna/press/91003.html> Buoyed by the US Senate's rejection of a Bush Administration proposal to drastically alter federal rules governing overtime pay, leaders of nurses' unions around the country plan to huddle in Oakland, Ca. next week to mobilize to prevent the measure's resurrection by the leadership in the House of Representatives. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 54-45 to block the White House effort to alter US labor law stipulating who can collect overtime pay. A similar measure has been passed by the House and it is expected that the Administration will now seek to push it through the House-Senate conference committee. The overtime pay change was strongly opposed by CNA and the recently-formed American Association of Registered Nurses (AARN) played a leading role in the campaign to defeat it. Representatives of the AARN and other nurse organizations will be on hand in Oakland to participate in a three-day celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the California Nurses Association, the state's largest organization of Registered Nurses. ... Announcement: Can American Labor Rise Again? Book Party for Dan Clawson Wednesday, September 17, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Doyle's Café, 3483 Washington Street Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Book Party for Dan Clawson, U-Mass Amherst professor, faculty union leader, and author of "The Next Upsurge," published by Cornell University Press. Sponsored by Labor Notes & Mass. Jobs with Justice. For more information, call: Steve Early at 781-643-1489. State of the Nation: Kucinich visits dockworkers in another California campaign swing Jeremiah Marquez, Associated Press, July 5, 2003 <http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6241288.htm> Los Angeles - Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich focused his campaign on California Saturday, promoting a peace agenda in the Bay Area and donning boxing gloves while wooing a politically powerful dockworkers union in San Pedro. Union members who work at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex chanted "knock out Bush" as the Ohio congressman slipped on the gloves during a barbecue at a harbor-area park. The twin ports handle 42 percent of the nation's cargo. Kucinich is among nine Democrats seeking the party's nod in 2004. The congressman pledged that, as president, he would protect collective bargaining rights and repeal agreements such as NAFTA, the free trade treaty with Mexico that dockworkers view as a threat to union jobs. Kucinich also told about 500 dockworkers that he would repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, which President Bush invoked to reopen the ports during a labor dispute last fall between shipping companies and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. On another issue, Kucinich called on other Democratic presidential candidates to condemn a GOP-led recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis. Kucinich was himself the subject of an unsuccessful recall effort when he was the mayor of Cleveland. He advised Davis to focus on his job and "hope you have someone good running your campaign." ... Gandhi grandson gives Kucinich endorsement Washington Post, July 14, 2003 Some presidential candidates go for the big union endorsements. Some rack up congressional endorsements. Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, is taking a more intriguing approach, promoting the support his peace-oriented, old-style liberal campaign is drawing from music legends, spiritual leaders, ice cream moguls, and best-selling authors. Last week, Kucinich added Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, the genius of nonviolence, to his list of endorsers. Democratic candidate raises $1.54 million for presidential campaign Malia Rulon, Associated Press, July 14, 2003 Washington - Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich said Monday that his campaign had raised $1.54 million during a three-month period, mostly from small Internet donations. After spending about $512,000 from April to June, Kucinich has about $1.08 million on hand for his White House bid. ... ''Our goal was to raise a million dollars in our first full quarter. We far exceeded our expectations,'' Kucinich said. His fund-raising total still puts him near the bottom. ... On the Net: Kucinich campaign: <http://www.kucinich.us> Feminists for Kucinich <http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/feminists_4_kucinich> We are feminists who consider the Bush administration a danger to our country and the world, and see a regime change in 2004 as the highest political priority. Rather than waiting to hear what all the Democratic candidates have to say, then jumping on the bandwagon of the least offensive, we decided to make our own list of priorities and see who agrees with us. ... Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate who not only agrees with all these points but has developed policies to support them. ... Labor's Weight Beyond Its Numbers Lance Compa, Washington Post, July 20, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14024-2003Jul18.html> The US labor movement is slipping into a final agony. That's the buzz after each year's Labor Department news showing a falling percentage of American workers belonging to unions. The latest report said 13.2 percent of workers were union members in 2002, down from 13.5 percent in 2001. This "density" figure began dropping from 35 percent in the 1950s. It slipped below 20 percent in the 1980s at a time of wrenching corporate restructuring. Since then the drip, drip, drip of annual falling membership figures tortures labor advocates. Is it the sound of blood? No. The union movement is still a vital wellspring in American social life. It flows up from more than 16 million workers who belong to unions, from thousands more forming new unions each year and from millions more who appreciate what unions do. Numbers and percentages are not the whole story. Social dynamics and geography have weight, too. Employers feel labor's "proximate" power in industries and communities with rooted union presence, where workers are more aware of their rights. Many companies match union-won pay and benefits to avoid collective bargaining. ... Bring the troops home now - End the occupation of Iraq Money for human needs, not war - Repeal the Patriot Act Resolution of the San Francisco Labor Council, adopted unanimously July 28, 2003 Whereas, the people in Iraq want the US occupation to end, and the US soldiers in Iraq want to come home. We ask: Who is benefiting from this war, and who is paying the price?; and Whereas, every day, people are dying as a consequence of this illegal occupation - Every day human misery expands in the drive for world Empire and corporate globalization - Every day, jobs are lost and vital social programs that serve and protect working people are being looted and destroyed, as the Bush administration cynically manipulates the so-called "war on terrorism" to carry out the social transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top; and Whereas, the Bush administration lied to the people, to the Congress, and to the United Nations as it raced to wage war against Iraq. Now tens of thousands of Iraqis and many hundreds of GIs have been killed or maimed - by Rumsfeld’s count over 1000 attacks on US forces since May 1st. As the anger of the Iraqi people inevitably grows, the body count on both sides will sharply increase; and Whereas, as the anti-war movement predicted, the Iraqi people view US forces as colonial occupiers, not liberators. American soldiers are killing and being killed in a war that serves only the interests of US oil monopolies and corporate elites - George W. Bush's real constituents. Soldiers and their families are realizing that high government officials, mostly millionaires who shuttle between corporate boardrooms and government posts, are using US troops as a private security detachment for the multinational corporations’ plunder of Iraq's oil riches; and Whereas, the Pentagon now admits they will have 150,000 troops in Iraq for the "foreseeable future," at a cost of nearly $4 Billion a month - on top of the cost of maintaining US troops and bases in 130 other countries - and this rapid rise in the power and reach of the military is closely linked to the unprecedented assault on the civil rights, union rights, benefits (including veterans’ benefits), and living standards of working people going on right now in the United States; and Whereas, the Bush administration - which only came to power due to massive racist disenfranchisement and voting fraud - has used the excuse of their "endless war" to sponsor a wholesale assault on the Bill of Rights, institutionalize racial profiling, assume extraordinary powers for the Executive branch, and adopt new repressive laws like the Patriot Act; and Whereas, on October 25, 2003 the anti-war, civil rights, social justice and labor movements - joined in ever increasing numbers by family members of military personnel and veterans and international delegations - will march on Washington, DC to demand an immediate end to the US war and occupation in Iraq, repeal of the Patriot Act, and money for human needs, not for war; therefore be it Resolved that the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, demands: 1) an immediate end to the US/British war and occupation in Iraq - Bring the Troops Home Now; 2) repeal of the Patriot Act and other repressive laws; 3) reordering of national priorities toward the human needs of our people. We need jobs and real security, not militarism and empire-building; and be it further Resolved that the council endorse the October 25, 2003 International March on Washington, DC behind the banner: Bring the Troops Home Now - End the Occupation of Iraq - Repeal the Patriot Act - Money for Human Needs, not for War and Empire - and will urge affiliated unions, other labor councils, state federation and AFL-CIO to do the same. Grand Theft America <http://www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html> Democratic hopefuls face off on health care Rebecca Vesely & Josh Richman, Oakland Tribune, August 1, 2003 San Francisco - Five Democratic presidential candidates traded barbs on their health care platforms Thursday at a 1.4-million member labor union's national convention, each claiming to offer the best plan for working America. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; congressmen Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and former ambassador Carol Moseley Braun faced delegates to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union's national convention at the Moscone Center; US Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., took part via satellite video hookup. ... Kucinich and Moseley Braun both said health care should be divorced from the employer-based system and put into a public trust, each making their case in a distinctive style - Moseley Braun subdued, Kucinich shouting. "We need to focus on wellness instead of just sickness-based care that benefits corporations and special interest groups," Moseley Braun said. When asked by moderator Press how a single-payer system could possibly pass Congress, Kucinich didn't even pause for breath. "We belong to the system, the system doesn't belong to us," he yelled. "The only way we're going to break free of this system is to rally the people to the cause. Don't we know the private sector has failed?" ... The poseur in chief Democrats can't win in '04 by fighting Bush on the issues alone. They have to convince Americans that their warrior president is a phony in a flyboy suit. Jeremy Heimans & Tim Dixon, Salon.com, August 1, 2003 <http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/08/01/phony/index.html> Rep. Dick Gephardt made his best and perhaps his only significant contribution to defeating George Bush in 2004 last month, when he derided the president's "bring 'em on" challenge to Iraqi attacks on American forces. "Enough of the phony macho rhetoric," Gephardt shot back. The Missouri Democrat's line was more than just padded flight-suit envy. His jibe hints at the strategy that could put a Democrat back in the White House: convincing Americans that Bush is a phony. ... Bush lied, thousands died. - The-Broadside.com Swing voters, politicians: 'Dubya duped us' Jim Lobe, Asia Times, August 1, 2003 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH01Ak01.html> Washington - Independent voters and members of Congress continued to raise doubts about President George W. Bush's war on Iraq on Tuesday. In a poll released by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), swing voters - people who consider themselves independent of both major political parties and very likely to vote in next year's elections - were considerably more critical of Bush's handling of Iraq and wider foreign policy than the general public and more likely to say the president deliberately misled the public about the reasons for the war. Members of Congress - including some from the president's own Republican Party - continued sharp attacks against the administration for misleading the public, classifying portions of a Congressional report on intelligence failures leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, and failing to disclose its own estimates about the costs of the occupation of Iraq, which began in April after a three-week US-led attack. ... MakeThemAccountable.com <http://MakeThemAccountable.com> Kucinich lights Fresno spark John Ellis, The Fresno Bee, August 3, 2003 <http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/7234287p-8161602c.html> ... The Ohio congressman, former Cleveland mayor and now candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, hit his campaign's high points in a 10-minute rant against business as usual in the United States. He promoted universal health care, preserving Social Security as it is now and keeping the retirement age for full government benefits at 65. He heaped scorn on what he called the failed war in Iraq and the questionable reasons the Bush administration has put forward for waging it. If elected president, he said he would cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement. ... [T]he crowd roared its approval for Kucinich, such as when he promoted his plan for universal health care with the government as the single payer. "It's time we stood up for the people of this country and delivered health care for all," he said. ... Gephardt Goes After AFL-CIO Endorsement Winning Union's Support Is No Easy Task Dan Balz & Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post, August 4, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16857-2003Aug3.html?referrer=e mailarticle> As the leaders of the AFL-CIO gather in Chicago this week for critical meetings about the 2004 election, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) has mounted an all-out offensive to keep alive his hopes of winning an endorsement from the powerful union body, whose financial resources and grass-roots mobilizing strength could determine who becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. Gephardt's lackluster fundraising and questions about his electability have made some unions wary about supporting the former House Democratic leader, despite his extraordinary support for labor during his career. Gephardt's rivals are urging labor leaders to remain neutral in the Democratic contest. With a helping hand from longtime friend James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Gephardt wants to emerge from the meetings of the AFL-CIO Executive Council with renewed hope for the endorsement and perhaps with an extra push that might help him to achieve what his rivals have been working assiduously to prevent. Labor and Democratic sources said Hoffa is pushing a resolution that would call for an October meeting of the AFL-CIO with a recommendation to endorse Gephardt at that time. Failing that, Gephardt supporters hope for a resolution calling for an October meeting, even without a recommendation for endorsement. If there is an October meeting, Gephardt would need two-thirds support from the AFL-CIO's 13 million members to win labor's backing. ... "Lying and war are always associated. Pay attention to war-makers when they try to defend their current war ... if they move their lips they're lying." - Phil Berrigan AFL-CIO sets October meeting to decide on presidential endorsement Leigh Strope, Associated Press, August 6, 2003 Chicago - An AFL-CIO endorsement of a presidential candidate won't come until October at the earliest, labor leaders decided Wednesday, giving hope to Democrat Dick Gephardt's rivals determined to deny him the labor prize. The former House minority leader has courted labor leaders here, trying to build on the solid union support he already has garnered in his race against eight Democrats. The unions already in Gephardt's camp had hoped to persuade the federation's executive council to recommend their favorite to the larger AFL-CIO general board. Instead, a day after labor leaders and hundreds of rank-and-file members heard appeals from Gephardt and his competitors, the executive council voted to give AFL-CIO President John Sweeney authority to call an endorsement meeting of the general board on Oct. 15. ... Most pro-labor candidate may not be unions' pick Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY, August 7, 2003 The AFL-CIO is a valuable source of money, organizers and voters for Democratic presidential candidates, yet the two men it has endorsed in primaries did not win the presidency. As Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt works tirelessly for the labor group's blessing, some inside the organization are pondering the larger question of who is their best bet to beat President Bush and they aren't sure it is Gephardt. AFL-CIO leaders decided Wednesday to postpone a decision on whether to endorse anyone until mid-October. Eleven international unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO are backing Gephardt, but many other unions are still meeting with candidates and polling their members. Tom Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a liberal-leaning think tank, says it might be better for labor to sit out the primaries, particularly given the lack of a clear frontrunner. Withholding an endorsement "leaves the necessary flexibility and dynamism in the system and will give the Democrats a better chance at figuring out who their best candidate is," Mann says. ... AFL-CIO to Stick Only to Domestic Issues In Ambitious Election Campaign for 2004 Harry Kelber, Labor and the War, August 8, 2003 <http://www.laboreducator.org/aflelect.htm> The AFL-CIO Executive Council, at its meeting in Chicago on Aug. 5-6, decided to continue its virtually unbroken silence about events in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the war in Iraq. At a press conference, AFL-CIO's political director Karen Ackerman stated that organized labor would have the "biggest ever" campaign to defeat President George Bush in the 2004 elections. But in response to reporters' questions, she said that the AFL-CIO campaign would focus exclusively on domestic issues. In sponsoring its widely-acclaimed forum for the nine Democratic presidential candidates at Chicago's Navy Pier, the AFL-CIO asked them to respond to five domestic issues of critical importance to working families, but it pointedly eliminated any question dealing with the war on terrorism, homeland security or the war in Iraq. Some national union leaders have privately told us the rationale for the AFL-CIO's anomalous political position. The issues of war and peace are too divisive, they say, at a time when labor needs to be united. ... But by its silence, the AFL-CIO is not being neutral. It is, in effect, giving President Bush a blank check to conduct the war in Iraq and wherever else he deems necessary, for as long as he decides and whatever the cost. How do AFL-CIO leaders justify accommodating such a policy? ... Discharge sought for soldier refusing vaccine William Kates, Associated Press, August 9, 2003 Fort Drum, NY - An Army panel recommended yesterday a general discharge for a soldier who was court-martialed for refusing to take the anthrax vaccine while breast-feeding her baby. The three-member Army Administrative Separation Board at Fort Drum reached its decision regarding Private Rhonda Hazley's fate after considering testimony and written evidence during a seven-hour hearing. Hazley, a unit postal clerk, was convicted at a summary court-martial in March of disobeying orders. She served 14 days in jail and was demoted three grades in rank to private. Hazley, a 36-year-old single mother of four from East Dublin, Ga., refused the shot because she was breast-feeding and was concerned about the health risks to the child. ... USLAW Protests Arrest of Iraqi labor activists International Labor Network Condemns Arrest of Iraqi Labor Leaders On Saturday, August 2, at 11:30 p.m., Baghdad local time. US Labor Against War, August 12, 2003 <http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org> US occupation forces arrested Qasim Hadi and fifty-four other Iraqi leaders and members of the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq who had been engaged in a five-day sit-in protest of the treatment of unemployed Iraqi workers by occupation forces and US corporations granted contracts for work in Iraq. We are informed that the detained workers were released only after the intervention of representatives of the United Nations. These were not armed combatants. They were not terrorists. These were unemployed workers peacefully protesting, exercising their democratic right to seek redress for their grievances. US Labor Against War joins with the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples and the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions to unequivocally condemn these arrests. The US cannot claim to be acting in the interests of the Iraqi people with the objective of establishing a democratic government in Iraq while violating internationally recognized labor and human rights of Iraqi workers who seek to exercise their democratic rights to peacefully protest and seek redress for their grievances. ... Families Join In Push for Troops' Return A new campaign decries the war in Iraq Others with relatives there say the group is a minority Susannah Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2003 Washington - Military families frustrated with the long tours of duty for US troops in Iraq have formed a campaign to urge an end to US military engagement there and the return of troops to their home bases. Parents whose children are stationed in Iraq unveiled the effort, dubbed "Bring Them Home Now," at a news conference Wednesday in Washington. "It was wrong for the US to invade Iraq, it is wrong for the US to be occupying Iraq," said organizer Nancy Lessin of Boston. "There is no right way to do a wrong thing." Last fall, Lessin and her husband, Charley Richardson, co-founded Military Families Speak Out, a group of about 600 families that oppose US military action in Iraq. Their son Joe, 25, was sent there with the Marines in August 2002 and returned home in May. Organizers of the Bring Them Home Now campaign, many of them wearing peace-symbol buttons, decried the Bush administration's support of a conflict they said was unnecessary. "This is a war that has been based on a series of lies, a war based on posturing on the deck of a carrier and from the safety of the White House," Richardson said. He and others said Iraq posed no immediate danger to the United States, and they criticized the government for not uncovering weapons of mass destruction or links between ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. ... Antiwar drive unites many military kin Elizabeth Wolfe, Associated Press, August 14, 2003 Washington - Susan Schuman's son writes home from Iraq complaining of poor living conditions, skimpy water rations, and dozens of daily attacks on US troops that go unreported. The mother of a Massachusetts National Guardsman stationed in Iraq since March, Schuman has joined others - longtime pacifists, military veterans, and parents with children on extended deployments - in a campaign to bring them home. "Our soldiers are demoralized. They are fighting an illegal and unjustified war," Schuman said at a news conference yesterday introducing the campaign, Bring Them Home Now. They want the US occupation in Iraq to end, even if they disagree on how to take care of the war-ravaged country. "I want to bring them all home now and let the Iraqi people determine the future of Iraq," said Stan Goff of Raleigh, NC, a military veteran whose son is serving in Iraq. The campaign's name is a twist on President Bush's comment at a July news conference. Responding to attacks on US forces, Bush taunted, "Bring 'em on." ... Check it out!!!!! Distribute widely! Please share this message with others. A Call to Labor Activists & Union Retirees Who are Veterans or who have Family Members in the Military Join Us to Speak Out Against: * A war launched with falsehoods, distortions and deception! * An occupation by troops untrained & unprepared to run a country! * Soldiers dying and wounded needlessly for politicians who avoided war themselves! * Corporations reaping huge profits & oil companies staking out new turf! * Veterans whose benefits are cut and treatment is neglected! * Conflict in the name of democracy while our rights are undermined in the name of security! * An economy with money for prisons but not for schools, for guns but not for health care! * Soldiers drafted by poverty and lack of opportunity based on promised benefits, training and education! * The prospect of more wars fought by working people & the poor for the privileged and the rich! If you agree, we invite you to ... Sign and circulate our statement. The entire statement is posted on the USLAW website <http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org> along with downloadable files in both PDF and WORD formats. You can sign on right at the website or download and return the sign-on form. Power to the People Rep. Dennis Kucinich, AlterNet, August 19, 2003 <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16625> With an estimated 50 million Americans and Canadians left without power and in some cases water, common sense requires us to reflect on the absurdity of deregulation of public utilities. The right of utility franchise is vested in the people. We give utilities permission to operate, and enable them to set up a profit-making business in exchange for the promise of affordable and reliable service. In 1992, investor-owned utilities pushed the Democratic House to pass HR776, which granted electric utilities broad powers. The bill was supposed to restructure the electric utility industry to spur competition. Instead, utilities used deregulation to effect a series of mergers limiting competition. In order to accelerate profits, cost-cutting ensued, involving the layoff of thousands of utility company employees, including some who where responsible for maintenance of generation, transmission and distribution systems. A number of investor-owned utilities stopped investing in the maintenance and repair of their own equipment, choosing to cut costs to enhance the value of their stock rather than spending money to enhance the value of their service. ... Veterans plan to exact action at polls GOP-led House reneges on pledge to pass $3.2 billion for VA medical care Dennis Camire, Gannett News Service, August 22, 2003 Washington - Veterans are condemning House Republicans' failure to deliver a $3.2 billion boost for the Veterans Affairs Department that would have shrunk the agency's waiting list for medical care. "A shameless betrayal" is how AMVETS sums it up. "A moral outrage," the American Legion said. "Abominable" is the word from the Non Commissioned Officers Association. "Veterans have been pushed to the limits," said Joe Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. "They're being lied to, and they're not tolerating it." The broken promise - the second time in a year Congress has reneged on a pledge to veterans - has veterans vowing to remember at the ballot box. "They're saying there has got to be a change made because if there isn't, we're never going to get what we're due," said Richard DeLong, a Vietnam veteran in Lafayette, La. ... Hospital 'in it for the long haul' as injured troops arrive daily Joseph L. Galloway, Knight Ridder, August 24, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/236/nation/Hospital_in_it_for_the_long_haul _as_injured_troops_arrive_daily+.shtml> Washington - You don't hear much about them or see their faces very often, but you should. Planes land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington every night, bringing American soldiers home from Iraq the hard way. Ambulances ferry them to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where doctors and nurses stand ready to rush them into the operating rooms. Major General Kevin C. Kiley, the commander of Walter Reed and a medical doctor, said that since the beginning of July, two months after the official end of major combat operations, there had been only two days when his hospital hadn't received soldier casualties. More than 1,000 injured American soldiers have been treated at Walter Reed since the war in Iraq began, and another 300 have arrived from the continuing conflict in Afghanistan since it began in October 2001. ''We are in this for the long haul,'' Kiley said. ''This is going to continue for a long, long time.'' They come with terrible shrapnel wounds, missing limbs, and often with blood infections. But of the 1,300 who have passed through Walter Reed, only one has died. ... Veterans challenge hospital closing Plan would move 435 Bedford beds Alice Dembner, Boston Globe Staff, August 26, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/238/metro/Veterans_challenge_hospital_closi ng+.shtml> Billerica - Hundreds of veterans and their advocates turned out yesterday to challenge federal plans to close the largest veterans' medical center in New England and transform it into an outpatient clinic. The consolidation would move 435 hospital and nursing home beds from Bedford to other parts of Massachusetts and to New Hampshire, including nationally recognized programs for patients with dementia and rehabilitation programs for homeless veterans with psychiatric problems. ''Nearly 500 of our most vulnerable patients would be displaced,'' said Thomas Kelly, state commissioner of veterans' services. ''Why close down the premier long-term care facility in the VA system?'' ... Delegates Hear a Politician Who Makes Sense UE News, August 26, 2003 <http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/newsupdates/news.php?topicid=129&pageID=uenews&pa getype=article> Pittsburgh - ... [T]he convention heard from United States Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. He challenged delegates to consider "a new vision for America," and to have a dramatic impact on the presidential race. The debate going on now in the Democratic Party is about "narrow choices and false choices," Kucinich suggested. The debate is about what type of private insurance will be available, "not whether we should create a transformation of a system that has obviously failed;" about fixing NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, not about getting out. Howard Dean, the physician running for the Democratic nomination, regards a single-payer plan as "tilting at windmills." "When a doctor says that, it´s time to get a second opinion!" Kucinich said. Why would anyone knowing the suffering of people lacking adequate insurance coverage face the American people and say that they can´t change the health-care system? Kucinich asked. He stated that a goal of his campaign is "to move forward the goal of a single-payer universal health system." ... UE Convention Urges: Bring The Troops Home! UE News, August 26, 2003 <http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/newsupdates/news.php?topicid=130&pageID=uenews&pa getype=article> Pittsburgh - General President John Hovis introduced someone whom many in the hall needed no introduction - veteran organizer and union leader Amy Newell, who served as UE general secretary-treasurer from 1985 to 1994. ... Today, Sister Newell is an organizer for US Labor Against War, and she came to the convention with a report on this significant undertaking. Beginning in February of this year, this coalition has brought together a number of national unions and hundreds and hundreds of locals and intermediate bodies, together representing more than 3 million workers. This led to an unprecedented statement by the AFL-CIO critical of the war plans prior to the invasion of Iraq. Newell reminded delegates that considerable death and destruction had already taken place before the labor movement experienced the first tentative steps toward questioning the Vietnam War - a consequence of Cold War-enforced conformity. This makes US Labor Against War (USLAW) "a new thing, something promising, significant," Newell asserted. ... Despite these efforts, Newell said, "the world´s greatest superpower waged war against a weakened, impoverished country," which failed to get one plane in the air. The war was launched for "reasons based on lies, forgeries, misrepresentation." Today, she said, the US is bogged down, not in a war of liberation but of occupation. Our government is now the government of Iraq. ... ‘Consider Kucinich,’ UE Convention Delegates Unanimously Declare UE News, August 26, 2003 <http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/newsupdates/news.php?topicid=126&pageID=uenews&pa getype=article> Pittsburgh - Electrified by the remarks of US Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, delegates to the 68th UE Convention on the morning of Tuesday, August 26 unanimously adopted a statement that urges the membership to "seriously consider" the Ohio Democrat´s Presidential candidacy. UE does not make presidential primary endorsements ... Convention Gives Boost To International Solidarity UE News, August 27, 2003 <http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/newsupdates/news.php?topicid=131&pageID=uenews&pa getype=article> Pittsburgh - ... [T]he convention heard from International Labor Affairs Director Robin Alexander. She reminded delegates of the divisions the Cold War created in the labor movement were global as well as domestic. The AFL-CIO collaborated with the CIA in attacking democratic unions abroad and overthrowing pro-labor governments. Since the 1980s,"neo-liberalism," with its deregulation, privatization, downsizing and other anti-worker attacks, has become the policy of corporate elites the world over. Labor’s experience with NAFTA and neo-liberalism has fostered change. New leadership in the AFL-CIO has encouraged organizing, and cleaned out most of the spies and thugs on its international payroll. For the past decade, Alexander said, UE has been working to build a new kind of international work based on organizing and rank-and-file participation. She reviewed recent and planned work, emphasizing worker-to-worker connections across international boundaries. The convention heard from Eunice Wolf, for two decades a leader of the Brazilian metalworkers´ union, a worker in a Carrier air conditioner plant. She applauded UE’s convention theme, saying that it is important that women and men fight together to achieve more rights for both. Her union federation, the CUT, will dedicate its 2006 conference to female trade union leaders. She noted proudly that, as a result of struggle by union women, the CUT is the only trade union federation in Brazil with an affirmative policy that promotes women. ... Happy Labor Day - Now, Get a Job Michael Moore, August 29, 2003 <http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2003-08-29> For his part, George W. Bush will spend Labor Day doing what he does best - not really working. Instead of protecting the country (I'll have much more to say on that in the coming weeks) or addressing the nation's floundering economy, he'll be raising money for his re-election campaign in Ohio. Bush is on pace to raise almost $200 million in time for the Republican primaries where his only competition will be his own dismal record. In Minnesota this past Tuesday, Bush raised $1.4 million by giving a 24-minute speech. That's about $60,000 for each minute of "work." By contrast, the weekly salary of the average American worker is a staggering $616. ... Administration's Economic Policies Have Failed Ohio And The Nation Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, August 31, 2003 <http://www.kucinich.us> Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, today, issued the following statement on President Bush's Labor Day trip to Ohio: "Ohio's economy, like most of the nation, is hurting due to the failed economic policies of this Administration. Ohio's economy needs more than a political stump speech. The President's visit, and reckless economic policies, will do nothing to help the more than 369,500 Ohioans who are out of work. Ohio has lost 195,200 private sector jobs since this President has taken office. Ohio, like many industrial states, is suffering under a President who has presided over the worse job creation record in over 50 years. Our nation is averaging a loss of 68,000 jobs a month, and the nation has lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since this President has taken office. This record is unacceptable. The President's 'leave-no-billionaire-behind' tax cut to the wealthy will do nothing to help the average Ohioan. The recently passed tax cut will continue a trend advocated by this Administration of accelerating wealth upwards. The first 60% of Ohio taxpayers will only see a tax cut of only $380 in total over the next four years. But, the richest 1% of Ohioans will be rewarded with tax cuts worth $52,240 on average over the next four years. ... " Bush's reelection liabilities mount Robert Kuttner, Boston Globe, September 3, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/03/b ushs_reelection_liabilities_mount> With Labor Day 2003, the race to November 2004 is on. Seemingly, President Bush will be seriously on the defensive on the issues, but with a big advantage on the politics. However, voters are likely to be energized in 2004 as they have rarely been in recent years. And voter mobilization will ultimately determine whether Bush gets a second term. First, the issues. Bush's foreign policy is a shambles. The architects of the Iraq war have been proven wrong on every contention they made - the imminent weapons of mass destruction, the alleged Saddam-Al Qaeda connection, the supposed ease of occupation and reconstruction. Thumbing America's nose at "old Europe" proved a major blunder. Bush now needs the United Nations to clean up his mess, but he is insisting on US control. France and Germany, not to mention Russia and China, aren't exactly lining up to donate money and troops to bail Bush out. The administration line - that the Iraq mess proves that the place is a magnet for terrorism - just isn't selling. This is a hornets' nest that Bush's policy stirred up. GIs are still getting killed for a war that the American public is turning against. ... Major union eyes Dean, Gephardt, Kerry in possible endorsement this week Associated Press, September 8, 2003 <http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/national/ap_endorse09082003.htm> Washington - Democrats Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt and John Kerry were the top contenders Monday for a crucial presidential endorsement from the largest union in the AFL-CIO, a decision that could come as early as Wednesday. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, characterized an early backing from his 1.5 million-member union as a best-case scenario, saying members at this week's political conference would drive the decision and the timing. The SEIU is the nation's fastest-growing union and among the most progressive and diverse, making it an enticing prize for Democrats seeking labor support. The stakes are particularly high for Gephardt, who covets a laborwide endorsement from the AFL-CIO. The Missouri congressman has 12 union endorsements so far, but the backing of a few more large unions such as SEIU would be a major boost to his candidacy. Eight of the nine presidential hopefuls, minus Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, spoke to about 1,500 SEIU rank-and-file members. ... $87 billion? We should be outraged Maureen Kelley, Natick, Boston Globe, September 9, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2003/09/0 9/87_billion_we_should_be_outraged> President Bush has the gall to ask American taxpayers for $87 billion to fund his dirty illegal war in Iraq. The administration's friends are making billions in the clean-up and reconstruction of Iraq. Millions of Americans live in poverty, made worse by Bush policies, yet he thinks we should sacrifice even more to bail him out of the worst move he's made yet. He's devastated our economy, underfunded the Leave No Child Behind Act, and cut benefits to our soldiers serving in Iraq. He's also cut financial support for our nation's libraries, children's programs, Medicare and Medicaid funding, jobs programs, training programs, and destroyed clean air and clean water laws. And we should believe that this man has our best interests at heart? Should we sacrifice billions of dollars, taking away even more funding from those who are least able to help themselves so that Bush's and Vice President Dick Cheney's friends can make billions more? These are disgusting acts of ignorance and arrogance, and if people are not outraged, as the old saying goes, then they're not paying attention! George W. Bush should be impeached now. Peg O’Malley, RN, sends this observation: How much is $87 billion? For that amount of money, America could: Solve the school budget crisis in every one of our communities, or provide health insurance for every uninsured American child for 15 years, or provide food for all 6 million of the children who die from hunger around the world for 7 years. Can you think of another better use for that money than a war? Bet you can. Say no to George! What is $87 Billion Worth? Washington Post, September 12, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/87billion.htm> Web Directory: AARN <http://www.aarn.org> Australian Nursing Federation <http://www.anf.org.au> California Nurses Association <http://www.calnurse.org> Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions <http://www.nursesunions.ca> CCDS <http://www.cofc.org> Irish Nurses Organisation <http://www.ino.ie> Labor Party <http://www.thelaborparty.org> LabourStart <http://www.labourstart.org> Maine State Nurses Association <http://www.mainenurse.org> Massachusetts Ad Hoc Committee <http://www.massadhoc.org> Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party <http://www.green-rainbow.org> Massachusetts Nurses Association <http://www.massnurses.org> MASS-CARE <http://www.masscare.org> New York Professional Nurses Union <http://www.nypnu.org> New Zealand Nurses Organisation <http://www.nzno.org.nz> PASNAP <http://www.pennanurses.org> PNHP <http://www.pnhp.org> Québec Nurses’ Federation <http://www.fiiq.qc.ca> Revolution Magazine <http://www.revolutionmag.com> Saint Louis Area Nurses Coalition <http://www.slanc.org> Seachange Bulletin <http://www.seachangebulletin.org> Southern Arizona Nurses Coalition <http://SAZNC.homestead.com> Union Web Services <http://www.unionwebservices.com> Women’s Universal Health Initiative <http://www.WUHI.org> FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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