There is a “union difference” in family-friendly workplace policies, such as family and medical leave, paid sick leave for employees and their children, health care and flexible work arrangements.

According to a recently-published report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the Labor Project for Working Families, unionized workers receive more generous family-friendly benefits than their non-unionized counterparts. These benefits include: increased compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, access to paid leave and flexible paid sick days.

“This study bolsters the case for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA),” says AFSCME International Pres. Gerald H. McEntee.

“Without the freedom to form and join unions, employees won’t be able to bargain for better health care, pensions, wages and working conditions. In these times of economic need, union membership can pave the way toward the American dream for more working families.”

To download “Family-Friendly Workplaces: Do Unions Make a Difference?” go to http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu or http://www,working-families.org

On Tuesday, the folks in Washington put forth their best effort on health care reform. America’s Affordable Health Choices Act is a plan we can, and must, support.

Now, we need to get this plan enacted. Join AFSCME members and thousands of people around the country who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and support this bill.

Let’s get this done. It can’t happen soon enough.

The bill that the U.S. House of Representatives presented yesterday provides a uniquely American solution to the health care crisis. It builds on what works best in our health care system and protects middle-class Americans from an unnecessary tax increase on the health benefits they fought hard to earn.

Call Congress today and urge your representative to support America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. Just give us your phone number and we’ll connect you right away.

This bill represents much of what working families need: it offers a choice of options, you won’t lose coverage if you change jobs (or lose your job) and it would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition.

The next few weeks and months will not be easy. We are up against formidable opponents who are ready to do anything to keep the status quo — and their massive profits — in the health care system. In fact, the health care industry is spending $1.4 billion to lobby against the bill. We need to spend every minute of every day working to stop them.

Join the fight. Call your representative today and ask them to support this bill.

This column by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee originally appeared in the USA Today opinion section.

Public pensions offer good value for taxpayers. In addition to providing modest but secure retirements for public employees — emergency responders, firefighters, health care workers, teachers, police officers and more — defined-benefit pension plans help provide vital public services and stimulate the economy.

The average annual benefit for a public worker, who has spent a career working for our communities at modest salary, is about $20,000. On average, taxpayers fund only 25% of the pension benefit; employee contributions and investments make up the rest.

While a handful of public pension plans are experiencing funding shortfalls, most are working well. Employers should be required to make regular contributions. That would solve the problem of shortfalls and protect a system that works for employers, employees and taxpayers.

Some proposals would only make matters worse. States that have experimented with private accounts, for example, saw lower investment returns — nearly a 50% reduction. Florida, Nebraska, North Dakota and West Virginia all tried private accounts. They left taxpayers footing the bill. When private retirement investment plans fail, they leave retirees more reliant on governmental financial assistance. That costs taxpayers more in the long run and hurts our communities.

Public pensions create almost $360 billion in economic activity and 2.5 million jobs. Shifting to a private system would have a dramatic and detrimental impact on local economies because businesses depend upon the stimulus of investment income from public pension systems. In California, switching to a system of private accounts could cost citizens $7.6 billion. Experimenting with a system of private accounts could put vital public services at risk and cost taxpayers significantly more for at least 10 to 15 years.

All Americans should have retirement benefits that they can count on, not the gamble of privatized 401(k)s run by the same Wall Street bankers who drove our economy into the ditch. Pensions are proven and critical tools to provide public services, stimulate the economy, secure retirement for public employees, and provide the best value for taxpayer dollars. Pensions work, so let’s preserve them and create retirement security for everyone who works hard for a living.

Gerald W. McEntee is president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

A letter to the editor from AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee was published in the New York Times on July 12th:

To the Editor:

Your assertion that “most health care economists believe that the current tax exemption for employer-provided health care should be capped or eliminated” ignores the conclusion reached by the Congressional Budget Office last December. It warned that costs would be higher for employees of companies “that had higher premiums because of the age or poor health of their employees” and that workers who lived in areas with more expensive health care would be hit hard.

Taxing benefits is a “blame the victims” approach that will do nothing to reallocate health care expenditures more rationally. It’s simply another example of tax code writers protecting special interests by sticking it to the little guy.

Congress should look at the favorable tax treatment afforded to capital gains and dividend income, which costs the government $178 billion a year. Unlike the tax treatment of health benefits, which affects a broad swath of the American public, a very narrow economically privileged slice of taxpayers benefits from this favorable treatment.

President McEntee also issued a statement this morning on the urgent need for health care with a public option:

Real reform must include a high quality public health insurance plan as an option for families so that they are not at the mercy of insurance companies. A public health insurance plan will operate more cost-effectively, lower costs and drive quality improvements. It will force efficiencies and innovation in private insurance coverage.

Read the full statement.

This week, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius expressed strong support for including the Community Living Assistance Services and Support: (CLASS) Act in health care reform legislation.

The AFSCME-supported CLASS Act is in the Senate HELP health care bill. It would create a national insurance program for workers who become functionally disabled. The new insurance would be financed through voluntary payroll deductions and will provide benefits for supports and services to workers to help them stay independent, employed and remain in their communities.

The CLASS Act has been introduced in the House but is not in its draft health care reform bill at this time.

If health care reform includes a public health insurance option that pays Medicare payment rates to providers, state and local governments are predicted to save an estimated $921 billion in lower health care costs over 11 years, according to researchers at the well-respected The Commonwealth Fund.

State and local governments would save $765 billion during this period if a public health insurance plan pays providers at rates set midway between current Medicare and private rates, but they would save only $594 billion if no public plan option is offered.

The study, “Fork in the Road: Alternative Paths to a High Performance U.S. Health System,” also found that overall health care savings with a public health insurance choice would be $3 trillion over 11 years, and only $1.2 trillion under a private plan-only scenario.

The major sources of the differences in savings are lower administrative costs, greater efficiencies in health care delivery and slower growth in health care spending with a public plan choice. Further, the authors estimate that premiums for the public plan option paying Medicare payment rates would initially be 25 percent below those currently available for a comparable benefit package in the private individual/small firm market.

To see the full paper, go to The Commonwealth Fund’s website at commonwealthfund.org.

Think Progress points to this story from the Washington Post about the massive amount of money being spent to block health care reform:

The health care industry is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying against President Obama’s health care reform effort. As part of this “record-breaking influence campaign,” the nation’s “largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress” to lobby Capitol Hill “in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues” on health care legislation.

More from the Post article:

The hirings are part of a record-breaking influence campaign by the health-care industry, which is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying in the current fight, according to disclosure records. And even in a city where lobbying is a part of life, the scale of the effort has drawn attention. For example, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) doubled its spending to nearly $7 million in the first quarter of 2009, followed by Pfizer, with more than $6 million.

“Influencing” is a euphemism for killing any meaningful reform in the legislation and keeping the status quo. We’re not about to let that happen. Real health care reform means:

• Coverage we can afford;
• Comprehensive benefits we can count on;
• Choice of a private or public health insurance plan;
• No taxation of health care benefits; and
• Equal access to quality care.

Counter the influence of the health care industry by calling the Senate right now. We make it easy for you: just give us your phone number and we’ll patch you through directly.

2,000 AFSCME members and thousands of other union members and community activists gathered near the U.S. Capitol on June 25, 2009 for National Health Care Reform Rally and Lobby Day. Their purpose: persuade Congress to pass a comprehensive health care plan to provide coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans.

Visit AFSCME.org for highlights from the event and more about our campaign for real health care reform.