Where I Stand — Guest Columnist D. Taylor: Labor confronts crisis

Friday, Aug. 12, 2005 | 5:52 a.m.

Editor's note: In August the Where I Stand column is turned over to guest writers. Today's columnist is D. Taylor, the secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226. The union is the largest local affiliate of UNITE HERE.

WEEKEND EDITION

August 13-14, 2005

The turmoil dividing the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a wake-up call to the U.S. labor movement to confront the crisis facing working people -- union membership at historic lows. The labor movement is barely visible nationally and the result is soaring health care costs, growing numbers of uninsured, disappearing retirement benefits and declining incomes.

Several major unions, including the Culinary's parent union, UNITE HERE, are pressing the AFL-CIO and the labor unions in its ranks to restore the American Dream to working people by organizing workers on a massive scale. Here in Las Vegas, workers and responsible corporations have shown a growing and vibrant labor movement is the antidote to the ailing American Dream.

Nationwide, even if the Bush administration had the will -- and it does not -- it could not get the train of economic security and a rising standard of living for working families back on track. History teaches us only a thriving and growing labor movement can drive such change.

Most Americans with health insurance depend on their employers for access to health care. Alarmingly, double-digit increases in health insurance costs, skyrocketing out-of-pocket expenses and exploding prescription prices are forcing many working families to put off medical care or even forgo coverage.

Corporations that provide employee coverage are groaning under the financial strain. Employers offset rising costs by shifting the financial burden of health care onto workers through higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Over the last few years the average monthly payment that an employee kicks in for a family health plan has nearly doubled to $222.

To bypass increasingly expensive employer- provided health care plans, a growing number of families enroll their children in taxpayer-funded health insurance programs. This trend burdens federal and state treasuries and results in higher private premiums. Public systems tend to underpay providers, who then pass those costs on to health insurance consumers.

Of the growing number of Americans who have no health insurance, more than 43 million -- eight out of 10 -- work or live with someone who is employed. Nearly one-quarter of the uninsured, over 10 million, are children.

Escalating health care costs are coupled with declining incomes. Between 2000 and 2003, real median family income fell 0.9 percent annually, which is a $1,500 drop in 2003 dollars.

Employers are also chipping away at, if not hacking, the ties of the pension safety net. Almost half of the U.S. work force receives no retirement help from their employers. Today, 17 percent of workers have traditional pensions through their employer, a figure that has dropped by more than half over the last 25 years.

In Las Vegas, the membership of the Culinary and Bartenders' unions has tripled to almost 60,000 casino workers since the mid-1980s. This growing local labor movement, partnered with industry leaders willing to pay their fair share, has creatively confronted the challenges facing U.S. corporations and workers, secured rising wages, improved benefits and bucked national trends derailing the American Dream for working families.

Culinary members enjoy free family health care paid for by their employers. Through a partnership with unionized gaming industry employers, the Culinary has undertaken innovative steps, such as a free pharmacy for generic drugs, to keep health care costs down while preserving and improving benefits. The union and the employers also bargain side by side with health care providers to rein in costs.

Wages have also grown. Culinary members' wages have increased 55 percent percent over the last 14 years and there have been increases in employer pension contributions.

The Las Vegas example of a growing and vital labor movement, in partnership with responsible employers, shows that the grim reality of economic insecurity and declining living standards facing working Americans across the country is hardly a fait accompli.

Clearly, what happens in Las Vegas should not always stay in Las Vegas.