This Sunday night, the CBS News program “60 Minutes” will feature a story on American International Group (AIG), the failed insurance giant bailed out by taxpayers with more than $180 billion.  AFSCME has been a long-time critic of AIG and its top management.  In the years before the company imploded, AFSCME repeatedly warned that AIG’s board and management were acting in ways that threatened the interests of shareholders, including the pension funds of AFSCME members and other working Americans.   In early 2005, for example, AFSCME International President Gerald W. McEntee stated “AIG’s business practices put shareholders at risk for significant losses.”

Richard Ferlauto, director of corporate governance and pension investment at AFSCME, was interviewed for the “60 Minutes” story and is expected to be included in their report.

Tune in to “60 Minutes” this Sunday (May 17) at 7 p.m. ET on CBS.

And join our campaign against AIG at: www.afscme.org/greed

Did you know that Citigroup CEO Vikram S. Pandit raked in a sweet $38 million in total compensation last year while running his company to the ground? Let’s not forget that Citigroup has already received $45 billion in federal bailout funds. It isn’t a coincidence that AFSCME has made repeated calls for more accountability at the company.

Or what about FedEx Corp. CEO Frederick Smith, who earned more than $10 million in total compensation in 2008? Smith, by the way, is an active opponent of unionization for his employees. While he gets a more than generous salary, FedEx Ground classifies its drivers as independent contractors so it doesn’t have to provide them with basic benefits such as health care coverage.

Despite the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, companies continue to reward CEOs for poor performance. Haven’t these people learned their lesson? See for yourself at the AFL-CIO’s 2009 Executive PayWatch website which documents these and other outrageous examples of CEO behavior.

And while you’re at it, make sure to visit the special section on companies that lobby against their workers’ right to form a union. Also, click on the link on pay practices at other companies that have received taxpayer assistance.

You’re bound to be (unpleasantly) surprised, but this is also why AFSCME has taken the lead in the fight against corporate greed and protecting workers’ pensions. Learn more about AFSCME’s shareholder activism here.

In honor of Tax Day, this story from a 2003 issue of AFSCME’s Public Employee magazine seems fitting.

Tip O’Neill, the late and great Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, loved to tell this story.

A constituent of mine woke up one morning and turned on the radio to listen to the weather report, provided by the National Weather Service. He heard a snow plow go by, clearing his street. He made a cup of coffee with clean water (assured by the Clean Water Act). He also cooked up some eggs and bacon — food products that were certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; he didn’t worry for a moment that his family might be poisoned.

The man kissed his children goodbye as they waited for the bus to take them to the public elementary and high schools. His oldest daughter, who wanted to go to college, was applying for government financial-aid loans; so on his way to the subway, he dropped her application letters in the mailbox. He passed the senior housing where his mother resided — and where she received a monthly Social Security check, high-quality health care paid for by Medicare, and a secure, warm environment to live in. Half the cost of the subway ride he took to the airport was subsidized by state and federal transportation funds. He flew to Washington to see me on a plane whose safety was ensured by Federal Aviation Administration inspectors and a flight made safe by federally operated security checkpoints. On his way to the Capitol, he stopped for an hour to enjoy the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History (no admission fee).

Then the man went to his meeting with me. He burst into my office complaining that “I never get anything for my tax dollars!”

Former AFSCME staffer Jordan Barab was appointed yesterday as the acting head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Barab is well-known as a strong advocate for health and safety in the workplace. He will lead the agency until a permanent director is chosen and then will become OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary on a permanent basis.

He has a deep commitment and dedication to protecting workers.

Barab directed AFSCME’s safety and health program for AFSCME from 1982 to 1998. He served as special assistant to the assistant director of labor for OSHA from 1998 to 2001. He was a consultant to the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department from 2001 to 2002, and from 2003 to 2007, Barab wrote an award-winning blog about workplace health and safety called Confined Space. Before his appointment, Barab was serving a senior policy adviser for the House Education and Labor Committee.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, says Barab “will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long.”

More from AFL-CIO NOW Blog.

This Sunday’s PARADE Magazine promotes an online poll asking: “Does America still need labor unions?”

I think you’d agree that it’s a pretty absurd question from PARADE. With the gap between the rich and the poor wider than it’s been since 1928, and with working families bearing the brunt of the economic downturn, it’s clear we need unions more than ever.

That’s why we’re fighting so hard for the Employee Free Choice Act. Workers deserve to be able to negotiate for better wages and benefits, but the deck is stacked against them.

Chances are good you saw the poll in yesterday’s paper too. PARADE calls itself America’s most widely-read magazine, reaching more than 70 million readers. Please be sure your voice gets heard in this poll! Tell PARADE America needs unions!

And with anti-union special interests waging a well-funded campaign of misinformation about the Employee Free Choice Act, you can be sure our opponents will be sending this poll around.

Let’s make sure they don’t skew the results. Vote YES today – America still needs unions!

You can check out more info on the Employee Free Choices at American Rights at Work at www.AmericanRightsatWork.org.

In what must have come as a shock to the McCain campaign yesterday, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has credited “good union jobs” for helping her family get the health care they otherwise would have been unable to afford. Jonathan Martin at Politico.com has the details:

“We’ve gone through periods of our life here with paying out of pocket for health coverage until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs,” Palin explained to conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “Early on in our marriage, we didn’t have health insurance, and we had to either make the choice of paying out of pocket for catastrophic coverage or just crossing our fingers, hoping that nobody would get hurt, nobody would get sick.”

Maybe Palin should tell her running mate, because in addition to opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, making Americans pay out of pocket for health care is exactly what John McCain wants to do.

According to the Economic Policy Institute report “Obama health plan outperforms McCain plain in coverage and efficiency,” McCain’s plan would tax employer health care benefits and shift the burden of finding health coverage to individuals. The report finds that roughly 20 million fewer people would have employer-sponsored insurance by 2018.

Hotline On Call posted yesterday about a new AFL-CIO mailer (215k PDF) being sent to over 1 million voters in swing states. It spells out the risks to our health care under McCain’s plan:

• Taxing employer health care benefits would put 158 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage. [CAP, 4/29/08]
• Already weak protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions would be gutted, and insurance companies would be able to deny coverage and procedures even more easily than they do now. [CAP, 4/29/08]
• McCain also wants to privatize Medicare – just like the plan he proposed for Social Security. [Columbia Journalism Review, 4/18/08]

In other words, when it comes to health care under a McCain administration, you’re on your own.

The McCain campaign will no doubt try to tell us Palin didn’t mean what she said about good union jobs and health care, but the truth is this is just one more example of John McCain being out of touch with the American people.

Find more details in a recent report available for free download from the EPI Policy Center.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders have been meeting with economists to develop a new stimulus plan and Speaker Pelosi said the plan was likely to include aid for states suffering declining tax revenues and help with the states’ share of costs for Medicaid services to the poor as well as transportation infrastructure, public schools and other public facilities.

Speaker Pelosi suggested a $50 billion package and said:

“our distinguished experts here say, again, something targeted, temporary, and timely, as were our criteria before, is very important… we can’t have them [middle-class tax rebates] exclusively dominate the package.  We have to have assistance, direct assistance, in terms of the other issues that were named: Food Stamps, LIHEAP, and the issues that relate to infrastructure, Medicaid, aid to the states.”

Senate Democrats announced they are developing their own stimulus plan. Emerging plans suggest a $50 billion package, which could include increased funding to states for their Medicaid costs, increased funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to address skyrocketing energy costs and extended unemployment benefits longer than the 13 additional weeks enacted in the first stimulus package.

While the details of these stimulus plans are expected this week, the House and Senate may not vote on these plans until after Labor Day, when Congress returns from its summer recess.

AFSCME strongly supports increased stimulus funding to provide states and localities with fiscal relief, especially through increased Medicaid funding and flexible anti-recession grants.

Tuesday, July 1, Baraboo, Wisconsin

The massive flooding that swept across much of southern Wisconsin has devastated the lives and homes of hundreds of thousands of families, including about 200 of our own members.

In early June, Lake Delton emptied out into the nearby Wisconsin River, washing out roads and highways, tearing apart trees and homes in the village of Baraboo in nearby Madison.

Although in need of help themselves, AFSCME city and state workers have been on the front lines, stepping up for flood victims, helping in rescue operations and providing aid. They are now putting in 12 to 16-hour days in clean up operations, hauling tons of debris and repairing and restoring roads.

Kenny Weaver, Local 758 president (Council 24), oversees the flood relief operations for the state’s Dept. of Transportation and coordinates the clean up of Sauk and Juneau counties with county DOT workers from Council 40.

Kenny describes the devastation in Baraboo to Gloria T. Caoile, head of the AFSCME Midwest Flood Relief team. “The surging waters swept four feet of sand in this area, destroying dozens of homes,” explains Kenny.” Our task now is to prevent the damage from getting worse by digging out the sand, fixing the roads and restoring the streams.”

Kenny confers with Mike Keichinger (right), a county DOT foreman and a member of Local 569, Council 40. He drives a back hoe excavator. For more than a week now, Mike and his co-workers have hauled away 100 truck loads of debris from the area. Council 24 and Council 40 members have been working together to clean up the mess. “This is what public service is all about,” Mike says proudly.

“We have the expertise, the equipment and the skills to get the job done,” adds Jim Garrity, a member of Council 40 Executive Board who works for the Jefferson County Highway Department.

The AFSCME Midwest Flood Relief team made on-site inspections and delivered cash assistance from the International union, with assurances of continued support.

An aerial view of Sauk county, one of the flooded areas.

From the airport, the team hit the road right away, crossing the Wisconsin River in a ferry and meeting up with members at a work site an hour away from Madison. Debbie Garcia, organizing director, provided valuable logistical support.

Photos by Jon Melegrito

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, John McCain responded to calls that he detail how, if elected president, he would address the economic crises facing our nation. What he offered are policies that would line the pockets of the powerful rather than helping America’s working families. Read for yourself.

McCain’s Plan for Working Class Offers Plenty for Corporate World
(Washington Post, April 16, 2008)
Sen. John McCain yesterday offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class Americans, promising immediate assistance even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring corporate growth.

McCain Reverses Position to Support Bush Tax Cuts, New Plan Includes Billions in Breaks; Setting Up a Clash
(Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2008)
John McCain famously opposed President Bush’s tax cuts a few years ago, saying they would irresponsibly swell the budget deficit. Now the Arizona senator not only supports extending those cuts indefinitely, he is backing more than $200 billion a year in new breaks.

Johnny-Come-Lately
(New Republic, April 15, 2008)
There’s no way John McCain will succeed in selling his atrociously conceived, wildly irresponsible tax plan to the American people. So he’ll probably change course — again.

McCain ‘gas-tax holiday’ is a campaign retread
(MSNBC, April 15, 2008)

McCain Offers Populist Message, Corporate Tax Cuts
(washingtonpost.com The Trail blog, April 15, 2008)
Sen. John McCain today offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class America, even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring business and corporate growth.

Are you in debt? If that’s the case, you are not alone. The average U.S. household, consisting of college graduates who borrowed money for school, have a mortgage and own more than one credit card, owes about $112,000.

That’s right, $112,000. Meanwhile, worker’s wages remain stagnant and the cost of living keeps going up.

Luckily, being an AFSCME member doesn’t just get you power in the workplace – it also gets you benefits from AFSCME Advantage and its many affiliated services, including the new Union Plus program Debt Help.

Debt Help seeks to assist working families in handling their debt. Its website offers advice on how to assess your debt, managing mortgage debt and numerous other programs get you back on your financial feet. Debt Help is provided by Union Privilege, an AFL-CIO organization that offers valuable consumer benefits to union members and their families.