AFT Delegates Vote to Endorse Kamala Harris for President |
The endorsement resolution can be found here: https://www.aft.org/resolution/endorsement-kamala-harris-president . You will find that the resolution provides some very clear contrast between the Biden-Harris accomplishments and Donald Trump and Project 2025.
AFT Delegates Vote to Endorse Kamala Harris for President
HOUSTON—Today, during a special session of the 88th biennial AFT convention, delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee for president of the United States. The endorsement comes after the governing 47-member executive council of the AFT met last night and voted unanimously on a resolution to endorse Harris, pending ratification by convention delegates.
“This afternoon we heard loud and clear from our members across the country—from Ohio to Montana, and New York to California—that they are all in for Kamala Harris,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “The educators, bus drivers, nurses, public employees, higher education workers, correctional officers and doctors of the AFT stand with Kamala. We are fully committed to this fight: united, mobilized and ready to vote in this year’s election.”
The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.
Randi At AFT Convention
To: AFT Members:
I’m excited to kick off the 2024 AFT National Convention today in Houston, Texas! We’re coming together to celebrate our union’s wins, face the challenges in our communities, and set a path for continued success through the election and beyond.
I’ll be part of the convention kick off this morning so tune in to watch my speech live on Facebook or YouTube.
Our convention’s theme this year is “Real Solutions for a Better Life,” and over the next four days, we’ll explore how teachers, school support professionals, healthcare workers, higher ed faculty and staff, and public employees are working together to build the schools, hospitals and communities where everyone can thrive.
Our speakers, including labor icon Dolores Huerta, AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus, AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram, and so many inspiring leaders and members from across the country, will be speaking on topics such as academic freedom, democracy, safe-staffing legislation, and so much more.
I know there’s a lot going with the presidential race—President Biden has been a formidable President, and we will honor him at the convention. He is passing the baton. AFT’s Executive Council met yesterday and voted unanimously to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, subject to ratification by the delegates to the 2024 AFT convention
We are indeed at an inflection point- progress is possible, but not guaranteed.
I hope you’re able to tune in. Follow along on Facebook and YouTube to catch my speech and many others from this week.
Thank you for everything you do.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
AFL Anti-Worker Foundation of Trump’s Agenda
The AFL-CIO highlighted the threat Donald Trump’s agenda poses to workers hours before he
took the Republican National Convention stage with a comprehensive new online
guide that digs into the policies of the Trump Project 2025 Agenda that will impact working people, their families, and the future of America’s unions.
That agenda includes:
● Banning unions for public service workers (page 82);
● Firing civil service workers and replacing them with Trump anti-union loyalists (page 80);
● Letting bosses eliminate unions mid-contract (page 603);
● Letting companies stop paying overtime (page 592) and allowing states to opt out of federal
overtime and minimum wage laws (page 605);
● Eliminating child labor protections (page 595);
● Urging Congress to pass Sen. J.D. Vance’s bill to let employers create their own sham
company-run unions (page 599).
The online tool also exposes Project 2025’s plans to gut health and safety protections; attack civil, labor, and consumer rights; eviscerate retirement security; and undermine our ability to hold the wealthy and corporations accountable.
“In his first term as president, Donald Trump was a disaster for workers and our unions, governing
exclusively for the wealthy and well-connected,” said Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO. “The
Trump Project 2025 Agenda lays out his plan to turbocharge his anti-worker policies, eliminate or
control unions, and eviscerate labor laws and workers’ contracts.”
AFL-CIO Responds To Vance Pick
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler Responds to Trump Vice President Announcement
July 15, 2024
Donald Trump has a miserable record of breaking every promise he’s made to working people—from failing to pay his workers and crossing a picket line to his disastrous four years in the White House. That betrayal would continue if he is re-elected—so it’s no surprise Trump chose a vice president who will be nothing more than a rubber stamp for that anti-worker vision.
Sen. JD Vance likes to play union supporter on the picket line, but his record proves that to be a sham. He has introduced legislation to allow bosses to bypass their workers’ unions with phony corporate-run unions, disparaged striking UAW members while collecting hefty donations from one of the major auto companies, and opposed the landmark Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would end union-busting “right to work” laws and make it easier for workers to form unions and win strong contracts.
If Trump wins, he would once again stack the federal agencies that exist to protect workers with union-busting corporate executives and anti-union extremists, strip funding for workplace health and safety, and do everything in his power to take away workers’ voice on the job—just like he did in his first term. That would mean weaker union contracts, lower pay and fewer benefits, so greedy bosses and his corporate donors could get richer. We can expect that a Vice President Vance would be fully engaged in helping Trump roll back decades of worker gains.
A Trump–Vance White House is a corporate CEO’s dream and a worker’s nightmare. Look no further than the devastating Project 2025 plan that would eviscerate unions and empty workers’ pockets just to boost the profits of their corporate friends and donors. That’s the Trump–Vance agenda. The AFL-CIO will continue educating union voters every single day to ensure the labor movement and working people stop the harmful agenda of these anti-worker politicians from becoming a reality.
From UFT President Michael Mulgrew
Dear UFT Retiree:
Today I'm writing to let you know that I have sent a letter to the chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, Harry Nespoli, to tell him that the UFT cannot continue to support the Medicare Advantage program. The city's losses in the courts and the needless anxiety created among retirees has made it clear to us that our support for this initiative cannot continue. Additionally, as the city has also delayed our current negotiations on in-service and pre-Medicare retiree health care for months, we no longer feel that it is in the interest of our members to be part of that process.
For nine years, we have been able to achieve savings while maintaining high-quality, premium-free health care. But it's become abundantly clear over the past two years that the city is no longer interested in being a partner in this approach. Our process is no longer collaborative; it is now adversarial. This administration has proven to be more interested in cutting their costs than honestly working with us to provide high-quality health care to the workers of this city.
You did not deserve the angst and fear you went through as we worked toward our goal of improving our health care in an increasingly difficult national landscape. I have heard your voices. And as we have all grown increasingly frustrated with this process, we will use our strength in the MLC to push for a new strategy moving forward.
No matter what, we will always do the tough work of fighting for our goal — maintaining our benefits and keeping the high-quality, premium-free health care that all our members deserve — and we will do it together.
Serious Times For Retirees
Alliance’s New “Project 2025” Fact Sheet Illuminates Changes in Social Security and
Medicare if Donald Trump is Elected President
The Heritage Foundation published a 900-page policy blueprint entitled “Mandate for Leadership,
the Conservative Promise, Project 2025,” designed to be the roadmap for a second Trump
Administration if he is elected in November. Heritage, a conservative think tank in Washington,
D.C., developed the plan with several former Trump administration officials and it reflects input
from over 100 conservative organizations.
If implemented, Project 2025 would dramatically reshape the federal government by placing the
entire Executive Branch of the U.S. government under direct presidential control, eliminating the
independence of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Federal
Communications Commission and all other federal agencies, as well as potentially firing
thousands of federal civil service government employees.
The changes would include dramatic cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The plan would make
Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option for people who are newly eligible for Medicare;
when Medicare Advantage was created, insurance corporations argued that they could deliver
more benefits to consumers at a lower cost to the government, but this has not happened.
“Project 2025 also calls for severe cuts to Social Security, including increasing the full retirement age from 67 to 70,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance. “This would amount to a cut of nearly 20% in lifetime benefits for all new beneficiaries, many of whom work in physically demanding jobs. It is nearly impossible for many people to work until age 70.”
Support Violence Intervention
To: AFT Members:
From Randi
While deaths and injuries from gun violence are declining, too many children and young people are slaughtered or traumatized by firearm-related violence. Death by firearm remains the leading killer of young people, and the impact on survivors, witnesses and communities is immeasurable. We see it in our emergency rooms, we see it in our classrooms, and we see it in our correctional facilities.
Help break the cycle of gun violence by telling Congress to continue funding community violence intervention programs.
Community violence intervention programs are effective. They were funded in last year’s federal spending bill, but this funding could soon end, as Republicans in Congress are seeking to cut spending in the coming weeks.
Help keep these lifesaving programs going by contacting Congress.
Many of you are worried about discipline in the classroom, violence in the ER and safety going to and from work. You see distraught patients and family members. You see traumatized students and those who have learned from the violence around them that their lives are not valued. Too many of you have been wounded yourselves—mentally or physically—by gun violence.
Let’s tackle these challenges head-on and demand Congress fund community violence intervention programs.
As we work to reduce illegal access to firearms through federal and state legislation, prosecute unscrupulous gun dealers and address the underlying causes of violence, we must also work in our communities to help young people being drawn into the violence by fear and anger.
Help keep our communities safe. Tell Congress to support community violence intervention funding.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
Lower Insullin Prices in 2024
Lower Insulin Prices, Out-of-Pocket Cost Caps for Medicare Beneficiaries Kick Off 2024
Medicare beneficiaries will see a wide array of cost-saving benefits in the new year. Thanks to the Biden Administration, seniors will continue to pay no more than the monthly cap of $35 for insulin, and vaccines under Part D will be free.
Going forward, if a beneficiary’s drug costs are high enough to reach the catastrophic coverage
phase, they will not have to pay coinsurance or make copayments. This effectively caps out-ofpocket expenses at $3,250 in 2024.
Another major change this year is the Part D Low-Income Subsidy program, Extra Help, which will
now cover more drug costs for those who earn less than 150% of the federal poverty level.
Qualifiers for the program will pay no more than $4.50 for generic drugs and $11.20 for brandname drugs.
These 2024 benefits are only a few of the annually unrolling policies that are aimed at limiting
Medicare costs under the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed in 2022. Last year,
drug companies were forced to participate in price negotiations with Medicare, which will lead to
lower prices, and in 2025, the annual Part D out-of-pocket cap will be lowered to $2,000.
“Beginning with insulin, seniors are finally seeing the affordable prices they deserve for live-saving drugs,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance For Retired Americans.
“These changes in 2024 are important steps toward curbing drug corporation greed.”
Biden Imposes Penalties On Drug Makers
Biden Administration to Impose New Inflation Penalties on Makers of 48 Drugs.
President Joe Biden went to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland Thursday to announce
that dozens of drug corporations will be required to pay rebates to Medicare because they raised
drug prices faster than the rate of inflation. Forty-eight Medicare Part B drugs with price increases above the rate of inflation will be subject to rebates in the first quarter of 2024.
Biden credited the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program, part of the 2022 Inflation
Reduction Act, for the development. The rebates will mean lower costs across the board for the
over 750,000 seniors who take the costly drugs every year, with the crackdown on price gouging
expected to save them between $1 and $2,786 per dose on their medications.
Seniors who take the drugs, which include medications that fight infection and cancer, will now
have lower out-of-pocket costs as well as lower coinsurance payments.
Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, 64 drugs have had prices that rose faster than
the rate of inflation in the last four quarters. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have also lowered coinsurance amounts for all of those drugs.
This latest announcement follows a separate drug price announcement from the White House last
week, when President Biden outlined the use of “march-in” rights to break the patents of
unreasonably priced drugs from companies that received government funds. The Administration’s
aggressive approach towards pharmaceutical price gouging has paid off, with seniors on
Medicare saving as much as $618 per average dose on 47 prescription drugs in 2023.
“Seniors are finally paying lower drug prices after years of drug corporation price gouging and
sky-high corporate profits,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “The Inflation
Reduction Act has been extraordinarily effective at reigning in skyrocketing drug prices in its first year and even more savings will come over the next four years.”
Keep this in mind when going to the Polls. |
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