News & Updates

Today’s the day when women workers finally catch up with the pay men received LAST year. Being 3 months and 20 days behind men’s wages means women who work full-time still are paid, on average, 78 cents for every dollar men are paid. According to the most recent data from the U’s bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wages of full-time, year-round workers in 2008 stood at $35,745 for women and $46,367 for men.

Read Equal Pay Day 2010: Women, 78 cents, Men, $1 by Tula Connell in its entirety.

By Henry Nicholas

After 50 years, a major down payment on healthcare for all has been achieved under leadership from the Obama administration.

Sadly enough, the Republicans have been almost unanimously opposed to any working-family issues that have been proposed or enacted as the economically strapped nation strives toward a return to normalcy.

The major issue now facing the American people is the loss of millions of jobs and many of those jobs are gone forever. Green jobs are a step in the right direction but there are not enough green jobs on the drawing board to replace the jobs lost in the last 36 months.

Jobs lost through Wall Street shenanigans continue to hurt working families and our union has joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in his call for bankers and other Wall Street bigwigs to pay workers (the taxpayers who funded the bail out) the $145 billion bail-out money and stop distributing unearned bonuses that executives persist in paying each other.

The political divide that runs rampant through this nation impedes progress on Wall Street and Main Street. We cannot be manipulated to believe the partisan hype – what we need now is progress not rhetoric. The economy will not rebound without an infusion of money. Cutting taxes is not the answer. Tax money is sorely needed for city and city services. As health care workers, we know that our industry now is reeling from cuts.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that only a unified effort can forge a solution to the nation’s problems – not flaming rhetoric that pits one community against another. We traveled to this juncture from different places but as the saying goes, “We are all in the same boat now.”

The rich can’t stay rich unless the economy rebounds and unless the economy rebounds, both the middle class and the poor will get poorer.

Many of our members face contract negotiations during these trying times and they can rest assured they can rely on all necessary support from the national union. I am confident that health care workers across the country will stay united and stay focused; we won’t buy into the politics of division. We will keep organizing, educating, agitating and working toward our vision of a just society. Our union remains committed to quality healthcare for all in a society free of costly wars; we remain committed to justice and a better life for all who work to achieve one.