Incoming Senate Labor Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said his goals will include passing the Employee Free Choice Act and extending Medicare to all.
Those plans will come after he pushes through his first priority, raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade. Kennedy wants to increase the minimum wage from its present $5.15 an hour in three steps over just over two years, to $7.25.
"We’re not rewarding work fairly anymore, and working families are falling behind," Kennedy declared in presenting his agenda for the panel just after the Democrats won enough Senate seats Nov. 7 to control the chamber 51-49.
"A minimum wage worker who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year still makes just $10,700 a year--$6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In this era of skyrocketing costs, these hardworking Americans are forced to make impossible choices--between paying the rent or buying food, between paying for gas or paying the doctor. Americans understand fairness, and they know this is unfair."
Kennedy\'s other priorities include worker rights and government-run universal health care, an idea he has pushed for years. He is the lead Senate sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, to help level the playing field between workers and management. EFCA would outlaw employer-run “captive audience” meetings during organizing drives, legalize card-check union recognition, increase labor law-breaking penalties and mandate first-contract arbitration, among other moves.
Kennedy also mentioned extending the Family and Medical Leave Act by creating paid leave. FMLA now offers eligible workers only 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
Kennedy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have drafted legislation to give seven days of paid sick leave to all workers in companies with at least 15 employees.
"We must give workers a stronger voice in their own futures and in meeting the needs of their families. We must protect workers\' right to join together and fight for better wages and working conditions, free from employer intimidation...And families deserve paid sick days to care for loved ones without fear of losing their jobs," he said.
And Kennedy put extension of Medicare to everyone atop the committee\'s health agenda, alongside renewing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which serves millions of low-income children (and thousands of Wal-Mart workers\' kids) nationwide.
"The most straightforward way to see that every American has affordable, quality health care is to extend Medicare to all citizens," Kennedy said, citing the “Medicare for All” act he wrote with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell will chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has some power over health legislation. "This proposal should be the starting point for discussions on achieving universal coverage."
Meanwhile, at least 200 union groups, including locals, retiree groups, central labor councils and 15 state federations, back a similar Medicare-based government-run single-payer health care bill, HR 676, drafted by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
Kennedy\'s agenda is the most extensive of those laid out by the incoming Democratic committee chairs, but not the only one of interest to workers. Other new chairmen have made pledges on other issues of interest to working men and women:
- Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., will take over the House Ways and Means Committee, the key panel that handles "fast track," anti-worker trade treaties, Social Security, taxes and Medicare, among other issues. Rangel said before the election that the Democrats have been pushing for more fairness in the tax code.
- New Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has said little about his priorities, but declared any Social Security privatization plan by GOP President George W. Bush dead.
- Incoming House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., is also the prime House sponsor of the minimum wage hike. He also wants to institute reforms in the "No Child Left Behind" legislation.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
Share
Incoming Senate Labor Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said his goals will include passing the Employee Free Choice Act and extending Medicare to all.
Those plans will come after he pushes through his first priority, raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade. Kennedy wants to increase the minimum wage from its present $5.15 an hour in three steps over just over two years, to $7.25.
"We’re not rewarding work fairly anymore, and working families are falling behind," Kennedy declared in presenting his agenda for the panel just after the Democrats won enough Senate seats Nov. 7 to control the chamber 51-49.
"A minimum wage worker who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year still makes just $10,700 a year–$6,000 below the poverty line for a family of three. In this era of skyrocketing costs, these hardworking Americans are forced to make impossible choices–between paying the rent or buying food, between paying for gas or paying the doctor. Americans understand fairness, and they know this is unfair."
Kennedy\’s other priorities include worker rights and government-run universal health care, an idea he has pushed for years. He is the lead Senate sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, to help level the playing field between workers and management. EFCA would outlaw employer-run “captive audience” meetings during organizing drives, legalize card-check union recognition, increase labor law-breaking penalties and mandate first-contract arbitration, among other moves.
Kennedy also mentioned extending the Family and Medical Leave Act by creating paid leave. FMLA now offers eligible workers only 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
Kennedy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have drafted legislation to give seven days of paid sick leave to all workers in companies with at least 15 employees.
"We must give workers a stronger voice in their own futures and in meeting the needs of their families. We must protect workers\’ right to join together and fight for better wages and working conditions, free from employer intimidation…And families deserve paid sick days to care for loved ones without fear of losing their jobs," he said.
And Kennedy put extension of Medicare to everyone atop the committee\’s health agenda, alongside renewing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which serves millions of low-income children (and thousands of Wal-Mart workers\’ kids) nationwide.
"The most straightforward way to see that every American has affordable, quality health care is to extend Medicare to all citizens," Kennedy said, citing the “Medicare for All” act he wrote with Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell will chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has some power over health legislation. "This proposal should be the starting point for discussions on achieving universal coverage."
Meanwhile, at least 200 union groups, including locals, retiree groups, central labor councils and 15 state federations, back a similar Medicare-based government-run single-payer health care bill, HR 676, drafted by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
Kennedy\’s agenda is the most extensive of those laid out by the incoming Democratic committee chairs, but not the only one of interest to workers. Other new chairmen have made pledges on other issues of interest to working men and women:
– Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., will take over the House Ways and Means Committee, the key panel that handles "fast track," anti-worker trade treaties, Social Security, taxes and Medicare, among other issues. Rangel said before the election that the Democrats have been pushing for more fairness in the tax code.
– New Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has said little about his priorities, but declared any Social Security privatization plan by GOP President George W. Bush dead.
– Incoming House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., is also the prime House sponsor of the minimum wage hike. He also wants to institute reforms in the "No Child Left Behind" legislation.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.