RX Express Off to Great Start
The RX Express, organized
by the
Alliance for Retired Americans, roared
off to a great start. Four busloads of
senior citizens, from Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, Oregon and Ohio, have made the
trip to Canada to buy prescription drugs at
costs far lower than in the United States.
“These trips are needed
to draw attention in Congress,” said George
Kourpias, Alliance president. “Congress
needs to act on a Medicare prescription drug
benefit so our seniors don’t have to make
these trips.”
The trips have drawn
considerable publicity to the plight of
seniors, noted Alliance officials, and local
politicians have hurried to associate
themselves with the cause, they say.
Despite a pledge by
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, on May 1
that a drug benefit bill would be passed by
the Memorial Day recess; no such legislation
has made it to the floor.
Byline Strike Slams
Washington Post
Reporters,
photographers, columnists, critics and
artists mounted a two-day byline strike
against the Washington Post, which
has been seen as a bastion of liberalism
since its Watergate exposures that toppled
President Richard Nixon.
The Post
staffers, represented by the Newspaper
Guild, have been working without a contract
since mid-May. Talks stalled over the
newspaper’s demands for concessions and its
insistence on imposing new restrictions on
union activities, a spokesman said.
During those heady
Watergate days, the Post had 12
unions, including a strong Guild, with a
union security clause that guaranteed 80
percent union membership and—not
coincidently—the highest newspaper wage
scale in the United States. Today, all that
remains is the Guild, which lost its 80
percent guarantee in previous negotiations,
and the tiny remnants of six smaller unions.
Despite its enormous
wealth and over-funded pension fund, the
Post’s wage offer calls for a zero
percent wage increase the first year and
pay hikes ranging between 1 and 2 percent in
the second and third years.
“We stand behind our
brothers and sisters in this fight,” pledged
IP Tom Buffenbarger. “We support their
demands for a fair contract and an end to
union-busting at the Post.” As a
first step, he offered Guild representatives
free use of the IAM’s studio and all
facilities to help them make their voices
heard.
The Rich Get Richer…
Over the past 20 years, the
income gap between the wealthy families and
low-and middle-come families in the US rose
to historic highs, despite sustained periods
of economic growth in the 1980s and 90s,
according to the AFL-CIO magazine
America@Work.
New York saw the
biggest increase in income inequality over
that time—real income for the bottom fifth
of families fell $800. The average income
for the top one-fifth increased by
$56,800.
“I guess that’s why
President Bush saw fit to give those rich
folks such a huge tax cut,” scoffed IP Tom
Buffenbarger. “That $56,800 pay raise for
the already wealthy is more than most folks
make in a year.”
Both the Economic
Policy Institute and the Center on Budget
Policy and Priorities have studied the
income imbalance. For a copy of their study,
Pulling Apart, A State-by-State Analysis
of Income Trends, visit
www.epinet.org or
www.cbpp.org.
Voice@Work Month
in Full
Swing
Throughout June, workers across the
nation who are organizing unions will be
reaching out to their communities,
explaining why they want a voice at work. At
the same time, they are shining the
spotlight on employers who deny them the
freedom to make their own decisions about
unions.
By drawing in community
groups, elected officials and religious
leaders in workers’ struggles, today’s
unions are reducing employer interference
and laying the groundwork for fundamental
reform of America‘s outmoded labor laws.
For additional
information on June
Voice@Work activities, visit
www.aflcio.org.
