HAPPY THANKSGIVING

• Keep up the Calls to Fight Tax on Our Health Care Benefits
• Current Senate Health Care Bill Falls Short for Middle Class Families
• San Francisco Locals Protest U.S. Chamber of Commerce Meeting
• Newspaper Guild-CWA Condemns Deadly Violence in the Philippines
• CWA Star Search: Win the Contest for Best Safety and Health Video

Keep up the Calls to Fight Tax on Our Health Care Benefits

CWA is stepping up the fight against a Senate plan to tax our health care. CWA's message to Senators: we need health care reform, but taxing our benefits is the wrong way to do it.

CWAers already have made tens of thousands of calls to members of Congress and we're leading every union in this effort. Now, it's time to double and triple those efforts, said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Starting now, local union presidents, staffs and officers are scheduling meetings and calls with senators to make sure they know how strongly we oppose taxing health care benefits. There is a better way to finance health care reform," he said.

Starting Monday, Nov. 30, when Congress is back from the Thanksgiving recess, CWA's worksite program will be in full force again. Look for stewards and co-workers who will have mobile phones ready so members can use CWA's toll free hotline to the Senate to deliver our message loud and clear.  Members also will be getting e-mail and text alerts with more information.

If you've already called your senators, don't stop now. Members should call as much as possible, to make sure our voice is heard.

Current Senate Health Care Bill Falls Short for Middle Class Families

The Senate bill's proposal to tax health care benefits would make our health care system worse, not better. This new tax, which is opposed by a clear majority of Americans, would affect millions of families. Average families who clearly don't have "Cadillac" health care plans would owe thousands of dollars in new taxes.

Taxing health care benefits is a bad public policy that would hit millions of families hard as employers cut back health care benefits to avoid the tax. The idea that this tax will curtail rising premiums is just wrong. 

CWA supports health care reform that is fairly financed, and the House bill has a better approach. It fully funds health care reform by making large employers pay toward their workers' coverage, adding a modest surtax on the wealthiest Americans and including a public option.

There are at least five options to fund the health care reform our country needs without taxing health care benefits.

CWA will work with Senate Majority Leader Reid and other Senators to produce a bill that will provide the real health care reform that working and middle income families deserve.

San Francisco Locals Protest U.S. Chamber of Commerce Meeting

District 9 CWAers lead protest outside the Chamber of Commerce meeting in San Franscisco.

CWA District 9 members led a big rally in San Francisco last week that called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its anti-worker and anti-environment stands.

Outside the Chamber's meeting, CWA members from Locals 9410, 9415, 9421 and 9419 were joined by UFCW members, environmentalists and small business groups to protest the Chamber's politics.

The Chamber is spending millions of dollars on an agenda to block progressive action on workers' rights, health care reform, global warming and other important issues.

Newspaper Guild-CWA Condemns Deadly Violence in the Philippines

The TNG-CWA Executive Council expressed its solidarity with the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in condemning the violence that has led to the loss of at least 57 lives, including a reported 22 journalists, two days ago.

TNG-CWA called on the Philippine government to fully investigate this massacre and bring the killers to justice and called on the international community and the United Nations in particular to remind all states of their responsibility to fully investigate and procecute such attacks on journalists and media staff.

TNG-CWA also pledged support for an international journalists' mission to the Philippines to highlight the crisis facing media there.

CWA Star Search: Win the Contest for Best Safety and Health Video

Forget Dancing with the Stars. Become a celebrity in your own union by entering CWA's contest for the best YouTube-style video that spotlights a safety and health issue on the job.

Be funny, be serious, be creative. It's up to you. "Highlight your issue and show everyone there is a safe and smart way to work and avoid injuries," CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said.

Videos can be e-mailed to CWA or sent on a CD. The best file formats:
Windows Media Video (WMV), AVI (windows), MOV (Mac), MP4 (iPod/psp), MPEG or FLV (Adobe Flash).

E-mail your video by Jan. 8 to Larry Smoot at lsmoot @cwa-union.org. Or mail CDs by the deadline to CWA Safety & Health Department, Attn: Dave LeGrande, 501 Third St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20001.