“Great leaders aren’t born, they’re cornered,” paraphrased Joe Jurczak from National Nurses United during the opening of the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer National Meeting. He was imploring labor, the left, and anyone who gives a damn about the future of this country to pressure President Obama to put workers before Wall Street and big insurance. He, like many of us, had great hopes for Obama. But after the bailouts, and after the passage of the ACA--which continues to put for-profit insurance corporations in the driver seat of our national health care system--it is clear that this is one leader who will have to be cornered.
The meet-up was held in Washington, DC over a hot and humid June weekend. Beginning symbolically at the National AFL-CIO office, just blocks from the White House, the purpose of the meeting was to reevaluate goals and messaging for the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer. The Labor Campaign’s purpose: To corner the labor movement and convince them that labor must lead on this issue. Without labor’s lead single-payer will never happen, because outside of labor is there any single movement that can bring to bear the political pressure necessary to corner a President?
To this end we have had much success. The National AFL-CIO has adopted a resolution supporting single-payer health care reform. They are also supporting the Sanders/McDermontt Health Security Act of 2011 (S703/HR1200), a single-payer bill in the Senate. The AFL has even made a financial contribution to the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer. Every year more international unions are adding their voices to the growing movement. But there is a long way to go.
There is no more important domestic issue. Just in terms of dollars spent it is the biggest issue of our times. Here in Maine we spend 19% of our Gross State Product, over $6500 per person, on health care every year. To put that in perspective consider that most nations spend between $3000 and $4000 per person. And our per person annual income in Maine is only around $29k.
Despite the tremendous resources we pour into the health care system, 10% of our population in Maine is uninsured. Nationally the numbers are even more grim. This leads inevitably to inadequate care or worse, no care at all. Daily Americans are dying that could have been saved--if they could have afforded the care they needed. In fact, the US ranks last among industrialized countries in deaths that could have been prevented with access to timely and effective health care.
Yet, our current national dialog centers on tearing apart the few social insurance programs we have. We are no longer discussing ways to insure everybody, we are talking about dismantling Medicare and gutting Medicaid. It is justified by fiscal crisis. We are told that these programs are too big to afford... whereas Wall Street is too big fail! Billion dollar bailouts for corporate banks and investment houses made possible on the backs of working people.
Here is an idea: make the rich pay their fair share! The Labor Campaign for Single Payer advocates the "high road solution" to these unprecedented attacks on the well-being and security of workers everywhere: solve the health care crisis by transferring resources from military expenditures and corporate welfare to programs benefiting working people. In particular, we can strengthen Medicare by expanding it to everyone in America. The entire budget deficit would disappear if per capita health care costs in the United States were the same as in any other industrialized country with a national health care system.
These are difficult times. The most difficult. With at least two wars abroad, a continuing recession, and a President who has thrown his arms around Wall Street and the insurance industry, single-payer health care seems a long shot at best. But, can we afford to ignore single-payer because it is “politically unfeasible”?
It is our job to corner the labor movement, and pin down the progressives, to build the momentum we need to get our policy leaders to stop ignoring us in favor of big insurance or in the name of political expediency. We need to reach out to the small business owner, whether progressive, conservative, or a-political. We need to find the common ground that all of us stand on. We have to each agree that health care is a human right, and we have to enact sweeping health care reform to achieve an universal, equitable, affordable and accountable system that serves all of us well. It is up to us. We cannot fail.
July 1, 2011
Potatoes & Green Chemistry: More Jobs, Safer Jobs
A recent report published by the BlueGreen Alliance, a national partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations, shows that Maine could either gain or lose hundreds of jobs over the next two decades depending on the path that our nation’s chemical policy takes. Today there are potentially thousands of toxic chemicals that have slipped through the vast lapses in our current chemical policies and arrived in our homes and workplaces. Yet we could have more jobs making greener chemicals. Right here in Maine, researchers are focusing on our potato crop in the search for the green chemicals of tomorrow. But more on that later.
As occupational safety and health professionals, we see chemical policy reform as critical to ensuring that workers are safe and healthy in their jobs. But we are failing. In fact, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that 20,000 cancer deaths and 40,000 new cases of cancer per year can be attributed to chemical exposures at work. By focusing on the narrow question of exactly how risky a specific exposure level might be, our current risk-based standard setting process distracts attention from the more important questions: Do we need this chemical at all? Are there safer alternatives?
Policymakers in Maine have seen the big picture and have acted. By supporting strong public health laws such as the Kid-Safe Products Act and the phase-out of bisphenol-a (BPA), they have protected children and consumers from toxic chemicals. And, by restricting the use of a harmful chemical like BPA downstream in consumer products, that action often results in an upstream protective benefit to the workers manufacturing, shipping and selling those products. But, toxic chemicals don’t stop at the border. Maine’s laws are limited.
That is why Congress needs to follow Maine’s lead and act to reform the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The reform mantra should be: First do no harm. Require chemical manufacturers to test chemicals before they are placed on the market. Prove to workers and consumers that chemicals are safe and provide us with minimum standards of information. Recognize and prioritize the nastiest chemicals and substitute safer alternatives. Require chemical processes that use toxic chemicals to be re-engineered. Develop new green chemicals that are less hazardous to workers. The resulting shift in research and development will create jobs and opportunities. "Instead of accepting the myth that policy reform will somehow cost more jobs,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents some 30,000 chemical workers in North America, “TSCA reform will create sustainable, good-paying jobs while protecting the health of workers and the environment by encouraging investment in education, technology and research."
And now back to Maine’s potatoes. Green chemicals Research & Development is already making a difference in the form of bioplastics, organic plastics based on plants rather than petroleum. In the last three years, the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine, a trade organization promoting the bioplastics sector, has raised over $2 million for research and development of sustainable plastics made from Maine potatoes. The plastics industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the US, so the societal benefit from a shift toward biobased plastics could be enormous – reducing consumption of fossil fuels and avoiding health concerns associated with traditional plastic production, use, and disposal. Demand for bioplastics has soared in recent years. In Maine, 13 million pounds of bioplastics could be made each year solely from waste potatoes left over from the growing of the food crop. Production of bioplastics could create over 850 permanent jobs in Maine.
If there is no change and the chemical industry is allowed to continue on their present path, preferring cost-cutting practices that eliminate jobs and minimize innovation, the present number of jobs in non-pharmaceutical chemicals will be cut in half over the next 20 years. It is time for stronger regulation and safer chemicals. These reforms will create jobs, spur innovation, and build a safer future. And, if we are lucky enough to have reforms enacted, perhaps we could even find a new way to use our potato crop by turning the root veggie into something completely unexpected.
John Newton has been an industrial hygienist for 30 years. A former paperworkers union leader, he represents the American Federation of Government Employees on the Executive Board of the Maine AFL-CIO.
Anthony Zeli is an occupational safety and health advocate with the Maine Labor Group on Health.
As occupational safety and health professionals, we see chemical policy reform as critical to ensuring that workers are safe and healthy in their jobs. But we are failing. In fact, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimates that 20,000 cancer deaths and 40,000 new cases of cancer per year can be attributed to chemical exposures at work. By focusing on the narrow question of exactly how risky a specific exposure level might be, our current risk-based standard setting process distracts attention from the more important questions: Do we need this chemical at all? Are there safer alternatives?
Policymakers in Maine have seen the big picture and have acted. By supporting strong public health laws such as the Kid-Safe Products Act and the phase-out of bisphenol-a (BPA), they have protected children and consumers from toxic chemicals. And, by restricting the use of a harmful chemical like BPA downstream in consumer products, that action often results in an upstream protective benefit to the workers manufacturing, shipping and selling those products. But, toxic chemicals don’t stop at the border. Maine’s laws are limited.
That is why Congress needs to follow Maine’s lead and act to reform the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The reform mantra should be: First do no harm. Require chemical manufacturers to test chemicals before they are placed on the market. Prove to workers and consumers that chemicals are safe and provide us with minimum standards of information. Recognize and prioritize the nastiest chemicals and substitute safer alternatives. Require chemical processes that use toxic chemicals to be re-engineered. Develop new green chemicals that are less hazardous to workers. The resulting shift in research and development will create jobs and opportunities. "Instead of accepting the myth that policy reform will somehow cost more jobs,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents some 30,000 chemical workers in North America, “TSCA reform will create sustainable, good-paying jobs while protecting the health of workers and the environment by encouraging investment in education, technology and research."
And now back to Maine’s potatoes. Green chemicals Research & Development is already making a difference in the form of bioplastics, organic plastics based on plants rather than petroleum. In the last three years, the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine, a trade organization promoting the bioplastics sector, has raised over $2 million for research and development of sustainable plastics made from Maine potatoes. The plastics industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the US, so the societal benefit from a shift toward biobased plastics could be enormous – reducing consumption of fossil fuels and avoiding health concerns associated with traditional plastic production, use, and disposal. Demand for bioplastics has soared in recent years. In Maine, 13 million pounds of bioplastics could be made each year solely from waste potatoes left over from the growing of the food crop. Production of bioplastics could create over 850 permanent jobs in Maine.
If there is no change and the chemical industry is allowed to continue on their present path, preferring cost-cutting practices that eliminate jobs and minimize innovation, the present number of jobs in non-pharmaceutical chemicals will be cut in half over the next 20 years. It is time for stronger regulation and safer chemicals. These reforms will create jobs, spur innovation, and build a safer future. And, if we are lucky enough to have reforms enacted, perhaps we could even find a new way to use our potato crop by turning the root veggie into something completely unexpected.
John Newton has been an industrial hygienist for 30 years. A former paperworkers union leader, he represents the American Federation of Government Employees on the Executive Board of the Maine AFL-CIO.
Anthony Zeli is an occupational safety and health advocate with the Maine Labor Group on Health.
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