AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined leaders from five major national non-profit groups at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, DC, Tuesday morning to announce a five-step robust plan to deal with the employment crisis.

In his remarks, Trumka highlighted the need for action to help state and local governments maintain vital public services and prevent layoffs of public employees:

“We have to boost aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services and prevent more layoffs. State and local governments and school districts are experiencing the worst fiscal crisis in decades – we have state budget shortfalls this year alone of $178 billion. Next year will be worse and the four-year estimate is nearly $600 billion. This is happening right as we need these vital services more than ever. Without additional funding, our public safety, our health needs and our children’s educations will suffer. The right thing and the smart thing is to take action to save services, save jobs and stop the hemorrhaging from choking off economic recovery.”

The leaders of EPI, Center for Community Change, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, NAACP, and National Council of La Raza issued a joint statement outlining what needs to be done to immediately address the need for job creation.

The jobs agenda being presented to Obama and Congress is based on five key points meant to give needed help to working families now while putting us in a better position for a long-term recovery:

1. Extend the lifeline for jobless workers.
2. Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems.
3. Increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services.
4. Fund jobs in our communities.
5. Put TARP funds to work for Main Street.

Watch Pres. Trumka’s speech from the “Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis” event:

For more, read Trumka’s entry on the Huffington Post and visit the AFL-CIO website at http://www.aflcio.org/createjobs.

Now that health care reform has passed in the House, it faces a tough challenge in the Senate as opponents of reform try anything to stop it, including scaring seniors with myths and misinformation.

AFSCME Retirees – the union’s organization of nearly a quarter million retired members – has been working hard to dispel these false claims about “death panels,” rationed care, and cuts in Medicare benefits.

The truth is there are no benefit cuts and no rationing of care in these bills, and there certainly are no “death panels” that would deny care to seniors. In fact, reform will strengthen Medicare’s solvency and add new benefits that seniors want and need. These include:

• phasing out Medicare’s big gap in drug coverage (the infamous “doughnut hole”)
• fixing the physician fee schedule, so doctors will always accept Medicare patients
• offering free Medicare preventive services – such as cancer screenings
• and providing more choices in long term care.

AFSCME is trying to promote this message to retiree members as well as to the parents and grandparents of AFSCME’s working members. The Retirees section of AFSCME.org includes health care fact sheets and a new video called “Phony Horror Stories about Health Care Reform.”

The video, which stars AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee and Barbara Easterling, Pres. of the Alliance for Retired Americans, separates fact from fiction for senior citizens. It also features video remarks from Lynda Johnson Robb, whose father – LBJ – established Medicare as the first step toward affordable health care coverage for all. Watch it here:

In addition, Seniors to Seniors, a coalition that includes AFSCME Retirees, AARP, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, is fighting to dispel myths about reform. The coalition site at www.seniorstoseniors.org has informative videos that show fellow seniors telling their personal health care stories and a health care reform Q & A.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee praised Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House of Representatives for passing the historic Affordable Health Care for America Act:

“Saturday’s vote is real progress in the fight for health care reform. The House acted to protect seniors overwhelmed by the cost of prescription drugs and millions of American families unable to afford basic care because of skyrocketing costs. The Senate must act swiftly to pass this bill before the end of the year.

“AFSCME will not forget the members of Congress who chose to side with the middle class instead of the powerful insurance industry lobby. In partnership with Health Care for America Now, AFSCME will thank members of Congress for their courageous vote by running television ads in 20 House districts beginning Tuesday and holding hundreds of grassroots events. We are also partnering with Americans United for Change on thank ads that will run in 10 districts. We intend to do everything we can to guarantee Senate passage of legislation as soon as possible. Quality, affordable health care for all is now within reach. AFSCME will fight to make it happen.”

The TV ads thanking the courageous allies of working families in the House are on the air now. “About More” is sponsored by HCAN and AFSCME — here’s the ad thanking Rep. Kilroy:

View all the “About More” ads on AFSCME.org.

Americans United and AFSCME are airing ads titled “It’s Time” — here’s the ad thanking Rep. Carney:

View all the “It’s Time” ads on AFSCME.org.

The online progressive hub Daily Kos has gone AFSCME green for health care.

If you’ve visited Daily Kos today, you probably noticed the familiar orange color has been updated with a healthy dose of AFSCME green. We’ve taken out a full-page “skin” ad to make sure people call Congress today in support of the health insurance reform bill.

We think the colors work well together, and so do the combined efforts of labor and the netroots community. With a vote on H.R. 3962 coming as soon as Saturday, it really is all hands on deck to make sure this crucial legislation is passed now.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act provides a strong public option, protects working Americans from a tax on their health benefits, and requires large employers to provide insurance for their employees. It deserves the support of every member of Congress — including yours.

So go ahead and check out the new look at Daily Kos, and then make sure you call and tell your Representative to vote YES on the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Let’s make it happen now!

This message comes from Chuck Loveless, AFSCME Director of Legislation.

It all comes down to this.

The House of Representatives finally will vote on health care reform legislation as soon as Saturday. This is a truly historic and defining moment for our nation. Will we meet one of the most important challenges of our generation? With your help — yes we will.

Tell your representative to vote YES for the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Click here now.

You can help us cross the finish line. This is the vote that can put an end to our broken health care system — one that currently allows insurance companies to deny care for pre-existing conditions, has our premiums going through the roof, leaves 47 million Americans uninsured and drags our entire economy down.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee recorded a special video message for our members whose actions have helped us come this far.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) represents the real reform that we’ve been fighting for:

• H.R. 3962 pays for reform the right way — by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share and not taxing our health benefits.
• The Affordable Health Care for America Act includes the choice of a public health insurance option, providing competition for private insurance companies to lower costs and improve quality.
• The bill also requires most employers to provide insurance coverage for their workers or pay a meaningful amount into a fund to help low- and moderate-income workers buy their own coverage through the exchange that will be established in every state.

You can bet that Congress is hearing from insurance company lobbyists — that’s why it’s so critical that they hear from you, too.

Your voice will serve as a stark reminder that there is overwhelming public support for real reform — but only if you make the call. So please, go to: www.afscme.org/call

And help us spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Yesterday we wrote about a critical vote in the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee which pitted regular people and our pensions against the Chamber of Commerce and The Business Roundtable. AFSCME has been playing a leadership role in that effort, and thanks to all our hard work we won the vote this morning 39-30.

This is a big step forward in ensuring accountability for corporate directors through creating real democratic elections. The next step in the process is to have proxy access included in the Senate Financial reform legislation.

The current economic meltdown has destroyed $11 trillion in family wealth, pushed unemployment above 10 percent and threatened millions with home foreclosure. Part of the solution is to hold corporate directors accountable for the risky decisions they make and the executive pay schemes they approve that promote greed.

Proxy access gives shareholders the power to replace these corporate directors, and this week the House Financial Services Committee will be voting on a proxy access amendment sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Gary C. Peters (D-MI). The Chamber of Commerce is aggressively mobilizing to defeat this amendment and protect corporate insiders.

Visit ShareOwners.org for more information and to take action to hold corporate directors accountable and help prevent another financial crisis.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee issued the following statement regarding the introduction of the Affordable Health Care for America Act:

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership have crafted a strong bill. It deserves the support of every member of the Congress. It protects working Americans from a tax on their health benefits, provides a public option and requires large and medium-sized employers to provide insurance for their employees. This bill will make quality, affordable health care a reality for millions of families. Instead of taxing the health benefits of middle class Americans, Speaker Pelosi asks the wealthiest people in the country to pay their fair share. We will mobilize our members across the country to build support for this bill. This is real health care reform. The time has come for Congress to enact it.”

The Senate health care legislation announced by Sen. Harry Reid on Monday will include a public option, but would pay for reform by taxing more costly, so-called “Cadillac” plans. Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson says the proposed excise tax is going to hit an awful lot of Chevy plans, too: the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation says the tax will hit one-third of Americans by 2019.

Supporters of the Senate plan say employers will buy less-expensive plans to avoid having to pay the excise tax, meaning employees will need to pay more health care costs themselves — but that’s okay since the money being saved on the cheaper plans will be passed on in higher wages.

Meyerson sees a different outcome:

[I]f employers opt for cheaper policies to avoid the excise taxes on more-expensive plans, their savings may not be passed on to workers as higher wages but simply kept by the employers. Out-of-pocket health costs for workers would rise, but into-pocket wage increases to cover those costs might not be forthcoming.

Read the full column at washingtonpost.com.

Earlier this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) held a press conference to announce that the merged Senate health reform bill will include a public option which would allow individual states to opt out.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee praised Sen. Reid’s efforts:

“I want to commend Senator Reid and other members of the Senate leadership who have worked so hard to produce this bill, which takes us closer to the goal of health care reform. While the bill is by no means perfect, it is a significant improvement over the proposal crafted in the Senate Finance Committee. Now we will work to improve the bill on the Senate floor and to pass a strong bill in the House. AFSCME continues to support health care reform that includes a robust public option and an effective employer mandate, while eliminating taxes on middle class health plans. The American people are ready for Congress to finish this bill and make quality, affordable health care a reality for all Americans.”

Watch some of the highlights from Sen. Reid’s announcement here, courtesy of Think Progress: Wonk Room: