Naysayers may want to look the other way, but reality speaks for itself.

According to the latest Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage, the number of Americans without health insurance rose last year from 44.5 million to 47 million. That’s almost 16 percent of Americans who simply can’t get sick enough to require a doctor visit… because they can’t afford it.

And what about children? More than 600,000 of them joined the ranks of the uninsured in 2006. They have now reached 8.7 million. At a time when Pres. Bush threatens to veto reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, this is particularly dire news.

Meanwhile, the official poverty rate decreased slightly from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent last year. Nonetheless, that’s still nearly 37 million Americans living in poverty or 5 million more than when Pres. Bush moved into the White House.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) said it best: “While the poverty rate is down slightly, millions of Americans feel the American Dream is getting further out of reach. Today’s Census data confirms these fears. Americans are working harder but living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet and going deeper into debt because of the high cost of health care, energy, and education.”

Labor Day is a time to reflect upon the enormous contributions working people have made to our nation. But Labor Day should also be an occasion for progressive activists across the country to call attention to the egregious assault that the Bush administration has waged against the very people that helped to make our nation strong.

Every vital statistic concerning the health of our country’s middle-class is headed in the wrong direction. Since President Bush took office, the cost of college tuition, the incidence of home foreclosures and the number of uninsured Americans have all increased — while corporate profits have skyrocketed and median income has tumbled.

As AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee details in his latest contribution to the Huffington Post, this is not mere coincidence but rather a direct result of President Bush’s failed policies and misguided priorities.

Says McEntee of Bush’s hollow rhetoric:

Last Labor Day, President Bush proclaimed that the working people of America “build better lives for themselves and their families and make America stronger.” In 2008, when we elect a President who stands with working families instead of against them, we will make those words ring true.

Read the full post.

Two years ago today, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast ripping lives and property to shreds.

The storm also tore a gaping hole in our nation’s façade, revealing to Americans and the world the impoverished lives of some U.S. citizens and the Bush administration’s pitiful response to the disaster.

AFSCME member Michele Baker and her husband, Alex, survey the damage at their home after Hurricane Katrina.

Nearly two years later, AFSCME members and their families exemplify the plight of many Gulf Coast families who are still struggling in the wake of the Bush administration’s shocking neglect of public services and inept response to America’s greatest natural disaster. (See: “AFSCME Members Continue the Struggle to Rebuild” at AFSCME.org)

The Times Picayune reported yesterday that compared with two years ago in New Orleans:

• There are 42 percent fewer hospital beds available;
• There are only 50 percent as many schools open; and
• A shocking 80 percent of the levee system is still not meeting its original authorized height.

The AFL-CIO Now Blog rightly titles its post on the Katrina anniversary “Our National Shame.”

Should we start denying health care to kids because their parents’ paychecks aren’t big enough? Of course not!

George Bush doesn’t see things that way. He seems to think that extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which helps provide medical care to low-income kids, is a bad idea. So, he’s promising to veto it—even though both the House and the Senate recently passed initiatives to grant more funding and cover more children under the program.

Pres. McEntee has denounced the Bush administration’s offensive against uninsured kids. Read his latest Huffington Post blog here.

He writes: “In America today, 9 million children live without health insurance. Nearly 70 percent of the children without health insurance have at least one parent who is employed. This is just not right.”

Read the complete post here.

It’s simple: Our nation’s bridges shouldn’t collapse. But after the I-35W bridge fell in Minneapolis, Minn., AFSCME Council 5 members were on the frontlines of the relief effort. Highway helpers and commercial vehicle inspectors aided with traffic and crowd control. Medical team members at local hospitals saved lives and provided first-rate emergency care. Radio control and 911 operators took calls and dispatched first responders.

In recognition of their selfless labor and that of countless other AFSCME workers, the union ran this ad in the news section of Minnesota’s Star Tribune and Pioneer Press newspapers on Sunday, August 19. A reminder that whenever there’s a disaster –be it natural or man made, AFSCME members are there to help.

We’ve come to expect greedy execs at for profit corporations (Home Depot, Enron, etc.) but you’d expect better from a Catholic non-profit hospital.

Unfortunately, Resurrection Health Care, a Catholic hospital system in Chicago, seems to be taking on the worst traits of corporate America. Read all about it in the report “Coming Up Short: Resurrection Health Care’s Distorted Pay Priorities.”

Released by AFSCME Council 31 last week, the report documents the stark disparity between the compensation of top executives and the low wages paid to patient-support staff on the frontlines of hospital health and safety.

You can listen to a story about the report and Resurrection workers’ struggle on the Workers Independent News radio network.

Father Larry Dowling, a supporter of the workers trying to form a union at Resurrection and interviewed in the WIN story, said it well:

Catholic social teaching is very clear about the need for employers to pay a living wage and respect workers’ rights to organize a union. These low wages are an embarrassment – an embarrassment – for a Catholic institution.

A lot. That’s the only conclusion anyone with a pulse could reach when watching Steve Skvara, a disabled, retired steel worker from Indiana, pose a question to the candidates at last night’s AFL-CIO presidential forum.

Skvara drew huge applause and a standing ovation after his moving description of how, after working for decades at LTV Steel, the company cut his pension by one-third and abolished his health care coverage. Skvara emotionally described being unable to pay for health care coverage for his wife who had devoted her life to him and their family. His question for the candidates?

What’s wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?

See Steve ask his question:

Read more at the AFL-CIO’s blog.

Tonight, seven Democratic hopefuls will make their case before the largest audience of this early campaign season—the 15,000 union family members expected at the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

The 90-minute forum will be carried live on the MSNBC television program “Countdown” and XM Radio channel 130, beginning at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT). MSNBC will continue broadcasting from the forum until 8 p.m. ET. If you miss it, XM channel 130 will rebroadcast the debate for 24 hours following its conclusion.

You can read more at the AFL-CIO blog.

The tide cannot be stopped. Slowly but surely, public employees across the country are gaining a voice at the bargaining table.

In Delaware, nearly 13,000 state workers won collective bargaining rights. Their fight to gain a voice at their job culminated when a bipartisan majority passed a bill in the state Senate and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) signed the initiative into law.

As AFSCME Council 81 Pres. Michael Begatto explains in this radio interview, this triumph marks the culmination of a 20-year struggle to win the right to bargain for a better future.

Delaware is but the latest among a streak of recent wins for state workers nationwide. In Oregon, the state legislature passed a bill allowing public employees to join a union via card-check. Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) signed it into law along with legislation codifying an executive order to grant bargaining rights to child care providers. New York, Kansas and Pennsylvania providers won collective bargaining shortly thereafter. In New Hampshire, majority sign-up for state workers became law while both the Massachusetts House and the Vermont House passed card-check bills earlier this year.

Statement by Eliot Seide, Director of AFSCME Council 5
The I-35W bridge collapse has horrified us. In America, bridges should not collapse. Today our union mourns the tragedy along with the families of those who are dead, missing and hurt.

AFSCME members were on the bridge when it collapsed and we’re making sure that our inspectors are safe. We already know that one inspector was injured and hospitalized for surgery.

Our members who work for the Department of Transportation are committed to moving commuters safely. We welcome federal disaster relief so we can help get 35W moving again.

AFSCME members are some of the everyday heroes who brought calm to this disaster. We saved lives as part of the medical teams at HCMC, took calls from motorists plunging into the river and dispatched first responders.

Today, more AFSCME members have been mobilized. Blood services are being provided by our members with the St. Paul Red Cross. Our state correctional officers will begin providing additional security at the disaster site. Our members are also part of a Crisis Incident Stress Management Team that will debrief first responders and provide psychological first aid to victims.

It’s premature to speculate about the cause of the disaster until the National Transportation Safety Board has completed its investigation.