With all of the standing, walking, bending, stooping and lifting their work requires, child care providers have one tough job. Yet, the average provider earns a below-poverty-rate income (for a family of four) of just $18,820 a year.

These dedicated professionals deserve better. That’s why Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced “The Quality Child Care for America Act.” The legislation would provide an annual $200 million to increase providers’ earnings, and help with their health insurance coverage, retirement benefits, paid sick leave and professional training.

AFSCME, which represents more than 300,000 child care providers and early childhood educators – including nearly 60,000 who joined the union just this past year – will work to pass this bill.

Watch this video to hear AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee announce his support of The Quality Child Care for America Act. To read more about the bill, click here. For more about child care providers’ jobs, see this U.S. Department of Labor report.

Today, by a vote of 273 to 156, the House of Representatives failed in its attempt to override President Bush’s recent veto of legislation to renew and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Read President McEntee’s statement on the vote. While the vote to override was supported by a large bipartisan majority, supporters of the bill failed to win the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto.

The bill would have provided health coverage to a total of ten million low-income children, four million more than are covered by the soon-to-expire law. Two Democrats voted against the bill: Jim Marshall (GA) and Gene Taylor (MS). Forty-four Republicans voted for the bill, as listed below:

Four House members did not vote: Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Julia Carson (D-IN), Peter King (R-NY) and Bobby Jindal (R-LA).

Go to this link for the full roll-call vote: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll982.xml

It was only a year ago that the Bush-appointed and Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied millions of men and women the chance to bargain for a better future. The infamous party-line vote on the so-called “Kentucky River” cases reinterpreted the definition of “supervisor,” expanding the number and type of workers who could be classified as such – and be barred from joining a union.

The decision affected numerous workers, including thousands of nurses who coordinate the work of other employees to deliver services. According to NLRB-speak, they are now “supervisors,” a decision that does not bode well for the nearly 60,000 nurses represented by AFSCME in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The sheer absurdity of the situation prompted this outrageous spoof by comedian Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Enter the RESPECT Act, a bipartisan initiative to redress the NLRB’s decision and allow more than eight million workers to regain their right to join a union. The Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers Act was recently passed by the House Education and Labor Committee and is now headed for debate in the full House of Representatives. It presently has 149 co-sponsors (and counting).

It’s time to restore the American Dream for working families. After all, it’s just a matter of RESPECT.

AFSCME has launched an ad campaign targeting members of Congress who voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Although the bill was passed in Congress, Pres. George Bush vetoed the legislation, showing once more how out of step he is with the country. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what a recent ABC News – Washington Post poll says: 7 out of 10 Americans favor expanding coverage for low income children.

Why are these legislators so intent on following the President off the cliff? We are trying to save them from following this path but, most of all, we are trying to save health care for our children.

See all the ads here.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee reacts to efforts by Bush supporters to discredit 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family.

The allies of President Bush who back his veto of bipartisan legislation to provide health coverage to children in low-income families took the politics of personal destruction to a new low this week. Front page stories in the Baltimore Sun and New York Times tell the story. They reveal the behind-the-scenes wheels of a smear campaign, based entirely on falsehoods, to destroy the credibility of a Baltimore family that stepped forward to speak out in opposition to the President’s veto.

The parents of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, and his younger sister Gemma, used the Maryland State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) after their children were seriously injured in an automobile accident. After the accident, Graeme lay comatose, with severe brain trauma. His younger sister was in even worse shape. Both parents in the Frost family work, making a combined income of less than $50,000 a year. On that income, they raise four children. But they could not afford private health insurance.

Thanks to SCHIP, Graeme and Gemma got the emergency medical care they needed. They, and their parents, know the SCHIP program works. Graeme said so publicly, at a press conference with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and in a front page Baltimore Sun story. Later, Senator Harry Reid selected him to give the weekly Democratic Radio Address, and he told a national radio audience about the medical care he received:

Three years ago, my family was in a really bad car accident. I was in a coma for a week and couldn’t eat or stand up or even talk at first. My sister was even worse. I was in the hospital for five-and-a-half months and I needed a big surgery. For a long time after that, I had to go to physical therapy after school to get stronger. But even though I was hurt badly, I was really lucky.

Graeme and his family made a powerful case that SCHIP funding saves lives. So, the President’s allies set out to destroy them. Right wing blogs went into overdrive, questioning the cost of the family’s home, the family income and even the cost of the private school the children attend. Now it turns out, these smears were all unfounded. Yes, Graeme goes to a private school, but his tuition is largely paid through a scholarship.

By targeting a family for speaking the truth about a program the President wants to dismantle, the Bush’s allies crossed the line. Instead of debating this vital program on the merits, they thought they could win by Swift-boating a working-class American family. By mounting a disgusting campaign to smear the Frost family, the President’s backers have gone too far. Their efforts should and will backfire.

President Bush should call this smear campaign off. He should tell Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and Senator Mitch McConnell to call off their dogs and leave this family alone. The brave Frost family has been through enough and doesn’t deserve this for speaking out about a vital program that helped them. The President’s allies have brought Bush-era gutter politics to a new low.

With the stroke of a pen, Pres. Bush has shattered the hopes of millions of low-income children to get the medical care they need.

By vetoing a bipartisan bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) he has turned his back on kids from low-income families who might either lose or never get the health care they deserve. Not only that, but he is ignoring the fact that 7 out of 10 Americans favor expanding coverage for low-income children.

SCHIP provides health coverage to children whose parents do not qualify for Medicaid, but can’t afford private insurance. The vetoed bill would have preserved coverage for 6.6 million kids while allowing an additional 4 million children into the program over the next five years.

Apparently, Pres. Bush thought that was a bad idea even though only two days ago he was proclaiming “Child Health Day” and, in his own words, recognizing “the important role the State Children’s Health Insurance Program has played in helping poor children stay healthy.” Talk about selective memory… and brazen hypocrisy.

As Pres. McEntee said: “If we can find billions to spend on the never-ending war in Iraq, we can find the money to protect the lives and health of low-income American children. President Bush’s veto is callous and immoral. Congress should waste no time in overriding him.”

George Bush and the Republican leadership, in the twilight of a failed presidency, are blocking funding for domestic priorities like cancer research, infrastructure improvements and veterans programs. Now Bush is threatening to veto SCHIP, the health care program for low-income children, while at the same time asking for billions more to fund his mismanaged war in Iraq.

In his latest entry on Huffington Post, President Gerald W. McEntee announces that AFSCME, along with Americans United for Change, USAction and a consortium of concerned groups, are launching a campaign to demand that Congress override the expected SCHIP veto.

We are locked in an epic battle with President Bush. A battle to preserve the role of the public services that keep our families safe and our communities strong. A battle over what kind of America we want to be.

Read the full post.

Never mind the doomsayers. In spite of the Bush administration’s repeated efforts to undermine union membership, the labor movement remains strong.

According to documents filed with the U.S. Labor Department, between 2004 and 2006 AFL-CIO unions grew by a combined 1.42 percent, a net growth of 136,000 members. Leading the pack is AFSCME, which gained more than 120,000 members. Numerous workers joined AFSCME during the period, including child care providers in New York, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, bus drivers in Indiana and thousands more across the country.

Imagine what would happen if workers were actually free to join unions and didn’t have to fight tooth and nail to assert their right to bargain for a better future. Just take a look at some examples of organizing amid employer intimidation from this recent issue of AFSCME WORKS magazine. Remember that over 60 percent of Americans approve of labor unions and some 60 million workers say they would be part of one if they could.

This is why we support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), an initiative to allow people to join unions – either by ballot elections or majority sign-up – without employer interference. This is also why supporting a candidate that’s friendly to working families will be so important in ’08.

Next week, the U.S. House is expected to vote on the bipartisan Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would make it illegal to fire someone because of his or her sexual orientation. It is a national disgrace that in more than 30 states, competent and qualified workers can still be fired simply because of their sexual orientation.

In his statement on ENDA, AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee said, “Congress now has an opportunity to right this wrong. Immediate enactment of ENDA will send a clear message that the American Dream belongs to all of us… It is time to pass ENDA. It is the right thing to do.”

The House of Labor must be doing something right. According to the latest Gallup poll, sixty percent of Americans approve of labor unions.

That’s right. Sixty percent, even though unions are under constant attack by one of the most anti-worker administrations in recent history.

And here’s why: When it comes to fair wages, better health care and pensions, a union makes all the difference. Union members earn 30 percent more than nonunion workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Likewise, 80 percent of union members are covered by pension plans versus just 47 percent of nonunion workers. Furthermore, nonunion employees are five times more likely to lack health insurance coverage.

It is not surprising that 60 million U.S. workers say they would join a union if they could. So, what’s the hold up? Employer intimidation. Our nation’s labor laws are enforced so feebly that employers routinely get away with breaking them.

Anti-worker lawmakers recently derailed Senate passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, an initiative that would allow workers to join unions – either by ballot elections or majority sign-up – without employer interference.

Despite clear approval from the American public, George W. Bush seems to think it’s fine that workers aren’t free to join unions or bargain for a better future for their families. He’s promised to veto the bill should it reach his desk.

Just one more reason for us to lead the battle to elect a pro-working family President in 2008!