The AFL-CIO sent out this press release earlier today. Learn more about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on the AFSCME website.

(Washington, April 11) The AFL-CIO today called on the Bush Administration to drop its proposed changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act that would make it more difficult for workers to get the time off they need to care for themselves or their loved ones in emergencies. The changes were proposed by the Bush Administration in February; an open comment period on the changes ends today. The Department of Labor will review comments and decide on final regulations.

“The Department [of Labor] now proposes to make dozens of changes to the regulations, the vast majority of which impose tighter controls on the taking of FMLA leave in response to the urging of the business community. Workers gain very little under this proposal,” the AFL-CIO wrote in comments submitted to the Administration.

“The Family and Medical Leave Act is working. The Department of Labor’s own research says so,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, referencing a Department of Labor (DOL) study that found workers taking FMLA had little effect on business growth, productivity and profitability. “These proposed regulations are nothing more than a goodbye gift from the Bush Administration to the business interests who have been trying to gut the Family and Medical Leave Act since it was enacted 15 years ago and have found an eager partner in Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.”

One of the changes of concern would limit workers’ ability to take earned paid leave while on FMLA. This would drastically reduce the effectiveness of the law, the AFL-CIO noted. “DOL’s own data shows that the availability of paid leave not only affects whether employees take FMLA leave, but is the single most important determinant of whether someone who needs leave actually takes it.”

Under current law, an employer who wants information from a health care provider about an employee’s reason for taking FMLA must both get permission from the worker to seek the information and have a medical professional talk directly to the worker’s health care provider. The proposed rules would let virtually any employer representative contact a worker’s health care provider and, in some circumstances, do so without the worker’s permission.

“These changes would jeopardize the confidentiality of employee medical information and provide employers with opportunities to abuse the information they receive,” the AFL-CIO wrote.

“The Bush Administration is proposing to ‘fix’ a situation that does not need to be fixed by granting the wishes of its business supporters,” said Sweeney.

Other proposed changes of concern would allow employers to require workers to make more frequent medical visits to get the necessary paperwork to show they need to take FMLA. For example, a worker with asthma who occasionally has to take FMLA for a day because of an attack could now be required to go to the doctor twice a year to certify the condition still exists.

Such changes “impose unnecessary burdens on employees who take FMLA leave as well as on their health care providers,” the AFL-CIO wrote, noting that workers will be required to pay for these visits, outright, through co-pays or through lost time at work.

The Department of Labor is also proposing that workers be required to notify employers of their intent to take FMLA before the start of the shift they will miss when unforeseen medical emergencies arise and to comply strictly with the employer’s usual call-in procedures to avoid discipline. Under current regulations workers can notify their employers as soon as practicable, so, for example, they would not be penalized because they could not call in during the actual asthma attack.

“This revision will likely have the effect of permitting minor deviations from an employer’s internal notice policy to result in wholesale denial or delay of rights guaranteed under the FMLA. For example, an employee who calls a deputy supervisor instead of the chief supervisor may be penalized for not following the employer’s customary call-in policy,” the AFL-CIO wrote.

(Compiled by the Office of the Speaker)

• U.S. troops killed: 4,017
  [Defense Department, 4/8/08]
• U.S. troops wounded: 29,676
  [Defense Department, 4/8/08]
• U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2001: Nearly 1.7 million
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan more than once: More than 599,000
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• U.S. servicemembers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who have children: 782,000
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• Percentage of these troops who have been deployed more than once: 40
  [Defense Department, 2/29/08]
• Percent of current and former military officers who believe the Iraq war has “stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin:” 88%
  [Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, 2/19/08]
• Percent of these officers who say the U.S. military is weaker than it was five years ago: 60%
  [Foreign Policy/Center for New American Security, 2/19/08]
• Percent of U.S. troops that have served in Iraq or Afghanistan at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.): 20%
  [USA Today, 3/6/08]
• Amount the United States is spending on the war in Iraq every month: $10.3 billion
  [Congressional Research Service, 2/22/08]

The Cost of Iraq War Broken Down

Second: $3,919
Minute: $235,160
Hour: $14.1 million
Day: $338.6 million
Week: $2.4 billion
Month: $10.3 billion
Year: $123.6 billion

[Congressional Research Service, 2/22/08]

On Friday, the nation mourned the tragic loss of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. For those of us committed to social and economic justice, it was a day to rededicate ourselves to the struggle to make this country a better place for everyone. For AFSCME, every April 4th is a special day to celebrate the life of Dr. King and the courage and will of the AFSCME strikers in Memphis whom King was supporting when he was killed.

Across the country, activists held rallies and marches and commemorative events, including several AFSCME affiliates. Local 1733 in Memphis, for example, held a march to the National Civil Rights Museum that received national media coverage. Local 3299 in California held a statewide protest to demand better wages and fair treatment. Images of the strikers’ “I Am A Man” placards were everywhere in the media, including on the front page of the Washington Post .

You can also read and hear strikers Taylor Rogers and Elmore Nickelberry movingly discuss the strike on NPR’s StoryCorps.

On Friday, John McCain went to Memphis as part of his presidential campaign, a brazen act of hypocrisy noted by President McEntee in his most recent entry on the Huffington Post, “McCain in Memphis: Straight Talk or Double Talk?”

And in case you missed it, we’ve posted a special splash page in honor of Dr. King at AFSCME.org which links to an updated MLK section of our website.

Speaking at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. John McCain apologized for his vote in Congress opposing the national holiday celebrating Dr. King’s birthday. “I was wrong. I was wrong,” he said.

In his latest entry on The Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says McCain has more to be ashamed of than that vote — in 1987, McCain went on record in support of the effort by controversial Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham to rescind Martin Luther King day as a state holiday.

Unfortunately, these brushes with bigotry are part of a pattern. In 1990, Senator McCain voted against the Civil Rights Act. During the Clinton Administration, he voted to defund the national commission promoting Dr. King’s vision for America.

Those are just a few examples of what Pres. McEntee calls “McCain double-talk,” so be sure to read the full post.

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to support 1,300 AFSCME sanitation workers on strike. The men had walked off the job to get the city to recognize their union: AFSCME Local 1733.

On the evening of April 3, 1968, Dr. King delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech – the last formal remarks he would give before his assassination the following day.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that Dr. King’s support for unions is more relevant than ever. As the AFL-CIO blog points out, the study

“found that black union workers earned, on average, 38 percent more than their nonunion peers.”

Ministers, community activists and students marched alongside the striking workers in their fight for dignity. Two weeks after Dr. King’s murder, they won collective bargaining rights and recognition of their union.

Community support for the Memphis strike has paved the way for successful coalition work to this day. Witness how the United Methodist Church joined workers at the Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis to win their four-year fight to form a union with AFSCME. Broad community support is also sustaining the current organizing efforts of 10,000 employees at Chicago’s Resurrection Health Care.

This video illustrates the close ties between Dr. King’s dream and AFSCME’s ongoing struggle for social justice. Four decades later, his dream lives on.

From Thursday’s New York Times:

The first hint that President Bush might be detached from the nation’s economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline… For a man who came into office as the nation’s first M.B.A. president, Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on voters’ minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Mr. Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.

Read the full story, “In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage”.

The Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report on the program’s financial status. According to Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson, its findings confirm “that the Social Security program is financially unstable and requires reform.”

Really?

While doomsayers are already claiming the sky is falling, a close look at the numbers tells a different story.

According to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the trustees’ report actually

“reaffirms that Social Security does not face a near-term crisis and can continue to pay full benefits for more than three decades.”

According to the CBPP, there are far more troubling threats when it comes to the country’s financial well-being:

Anyone concerned about Social Security’s long-term shortfall ought to be equally (if not more) concerned about the long-term fiscal impact of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Making the tax cuts permanent will cost more than three times as much, over the next 75 years, as the 75-year shortfall in Social Security.

In other words, Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are much more damaging for the economy than any alleged Social Security crisis. As the AFL-CIO blog points out, this is a thinly-veiled scheme to once again push for privatizing the most successful program in America’s history:

Bush and his cohorts in 2005 failed miserably to convince the American public that Social Security privatization was the holy grail of retirement security. But still, they persist in trying to sell this snake oil.

Indeed they do. Witness Sen. John McCain’s plan to divert American’s retirement money into risky private accounts, almost a carbon copy of Bush’s failed initiative.

Paulson, Bush, McCain & company might have a short-term memory when it comes to playing with people’s retirement security. Working families don’t.

Pres. Bush rubs former HUD Secretary Jackson’s head. It didn’t bring either of them much luck.

What better way to commemorate April Fools’ Day then by recapping some very foolish statements from the Bush administration. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention a memorable claim from now former Housing Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson, who resigned yesterday amid a swirl of accusations. In 2004 Jackson said that poverty “is a state of mind.” Tell that to the approximately 40 millions of Americans living in poverty.

There are so many foolish remarks by the Bush Administration to choose from. The Economic Policy Institute highlights four of the most foolish ones about economic issues by public policymakers over the past six years. They are:

President Bush: The Economy’s Strong. I’m Outta Here
At a news conference on August 9, 2007, President Bush acknowledged, “I’m not an economist” and then declared: “The fundamentals of our economy are strong … Job creation is strong. Real after-tax wages are on the rise. Inflation is low.”

Then he went on vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Crawford, Texas.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson: Housing Market Bottomed Out Last Year
In a speech at the Committee of 100, a business group in New York, on April 20, 2007, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “delivered an upbeat assessment of the economy, saying growth was healthy and the housing market was nearing a turnaround,” according to a report by MarketWatch. “I don’t see [subprime mortgage market troubles] imposing a serious problem. I think it’s going to be largely contained,” he added.

Former Treasury Secretary John Snow: Not to Worry, No Housing Bubble
In an interactive “Ask the White House Forum” on October 27, 2005, then-Treasury Secretary John Snow was asked, “ Is there a real estate bubble in the economy right now?” Snow’s response: “While we should always be on guard for ‘bubbles’ or areas where economic activity doesn’t correspond with underlying economic fundamentals – as was the case with stock market bubble of the late 1990s – I don’t think this is the case with America’s housing market.”

Former Budget Director Mitchell Daniels: Iraq War to Cost $50-$60 Billion
In an interview with Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times on December 30, 2002, Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., who was then director of the Office of Management and Budget, predicted that the cost of a war with Iraq would be $50-$60 billion. Daniels now serves as Governor of Indiana. More likely, the war will eventually cost an estimated $3 trillion, according to Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton.