Thousands of demonstrators, including hundreds of AFSCME members, participated in a “mass citizens’ arrest” of health insurance executives as they met in our nation’s capital on Tuesday to plan their continued efforts to defeat health care reform.

AFSCME activists from Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania joined the protest in front of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C. where the health insurance lobbying group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), was holding its annual policy conference.

“We’re doing something that we should have done a while ago,” AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee told the Los Angeles Times. “Whatever it takes, we’ll do.”

Speaking to the Huffington Post, McEntee let our elected representatives know they are on notice:

“I hope this sends a message to Congress. I think we have to demonstrate that we are not going to stand aside, that we are going to take them out if they don’t help us at all.”

George Estright, a member of AFSCME Local 2162, told the AFL-CIO Now Blog why he traveled from Harrisburg, PA, for the rally:

“We support health care reform to control insurance company profits. It’s not right for working Americans to pay for 200 percent profits for insurance companies. We need something that is fair and equitable.”

Press coverage included stories in McClatchy Newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, MedPage Today, the Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

See photos from the event on Flickr:

Read more about the March 9th action in this AFSCME WORKS Online Xtra and in posts on the AFL-CIO Now and Health Care for America NOW! blogs.

As the leaders of America’s health insurance industry meet today at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC, thousands of working men and women are urging Congress to take a stand against the insurance companies and their efforts to kill health care reform.

Busloads of AFSCME activists from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland have come to the nation’s capitol to confront insurance company executives who drop coverage for sick people and jack up rates to create unconscionable profits.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, joining more than 3,000 protesters outside the hotel where insurance company CEO’s and lobbyists are attending their annual policy conference, urged Congress to stand up to the insurance companies.

“For them, the bottom line is making money,” McEntee said. “They are paid millions to fight something every American should have – quality, affordable health care.”

AFSCME took out full-page ads in the three key Capitol Hill newspapers – Politico, Roll Call and The Hill – today urging Congress to pass President Obama’s health care reform plan now.

Conservatives are attacking labor unions and President Barack Obama’s relationship with them. …. As an economist, I don’t always agree with America’s union movement, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and I wouldn’t argue that union actions are always beneficial or costless. But a sensible discussion requires a careful, dispassionate look at the theory and evidence on unions — rather than right-wing ideology and stereotypes dressed up as analysis.

Read the full article.

A diverse group of Californians, including a San Diego community college professor, two Los Angeles probation officers, a Watsonville teacher, a retired Berkeley adult educator, and a retired L.A. teacher begin a 48-day “March for California’s Future” today.

The march, sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and a coalition of labor, education, and civil society groups including the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), will begin with a rally at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in L.A., after which marchers will travel to Bakersfield to begin their walk.

Following in Cesar Chavez’s footsteps, hundreds of firefighters, nurses, in-home care workers, students, and police officers will join the marchers for parts of their 260-mile trek from Bakersfield to Sacramento.

“We want to restore quality public education and public services, rebuild a government that serves all Californians, and create a fair tax system to fund our state’s future,” said Irene Gonzalez, a Los Angeles County probation officer and executive board member of AFSCME Local 685.

Hear more from Irene in this story from Workers Independent News (1 min. 28 sec. audio file):

More coverage here:
New America Media
KION-TV 46
The Bakersfield Californian
Talon Marks (Cerritos College)
The Guardsman (San Francisco City College)

From Maddow:

Consider three bills — two of them passed under budget reconciliation, the third heading for budget reconciliation. Each had an effect on the fiscal health of the nation, calculated by the Congressional Budget Office. The first two, the tax cuts pushed by President George W. Bush, blew a hole in the budget. The third, the Senate’s health reform bill? As you can see from the CBO projections, that’s a different story.

This morning, in yet another slap to the face of struggling,
out-of-work Americans, miserly GOP Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky again roadblocked measures in the Senate to extend unemployment benefits to 400,000 Americans and subsidies for affordable health care for thousands more. 

Senator Bunning’s “tough s—t” message to millions of struggling Americans, including 119,230 in Kentucky, was enthusiastically approved by Republican leaders.

It’s a sad new low for a party that believes they can gain politically keeping Washington in gridlock – drawing a line in the sand on virtually every issue, no matter how uncontroversial from creating jobs to financial regulatory reform to funding for our troops to health insurance reform and now unemployment and health care assistance for their constituents who need it most.

FYI – check out this new web video below on what the Lexington Herald-Leader calls Senator Bunning’s “callous grandstanding,”:

As U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein puts it, these insurers “have gotten very greedy.”

She’s right. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), these companies raked in profits of 250 percent between 2000 and 2009. Now they want even larger premium hikes: 56 percent in Michigan, 24 percent in Connecticut, 23 percent in Maine, 20 percent in Oregon, and 16 percent in Rhode island.

These are “disturbing examples of the problems that make reforming our health insurance system more important than ever,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius points out. “Thousands of struggling families are left with an unpleasant choice between fewer benefits, higher insurance rates, or having no insurance at all.”

It’s time to pass real health care reform and stop health insurance premiums from soaring even higher.

This spring, student activists are organizing conferences on college campuses throughout the country, taking on some of the most critical issues of our time. Students in Knoxville, TN, are focused on the issue of solidarity with campus workers and raising consciousness about the transition from student to young workers in the labor force. At the beginning of March, students will be converging in Washington, DC, to urge our nation’s elected leaders to support sound education policy.

Even in this tough political and economic climate, student activists continue to make a stand and fight for issues that are critical to their experience.

At AFSCME, we are committed to providing a space for these activists to continue their work long after they have left campus. Many of our programs are geared towards college seniors who are passionate about grassroots organizing and progressive social change — student activists who are anxious to continue the fight for social justice and workers’ rights once they’ve graduated.

More importantly, we are looking for students who believe that a strong labor movement is vital to fighting back against the attacks on working families, on health care, and the very fabric of what makes our communities vibrant.

If you are ready to take on these challenges, then consider fighting for social and economic justice as a union organizer for one of the most progressive unions in today labor movement. Go to www.unionbreak.org to apply for AFSCME’s Alternative Union Break, a program for college seniors interested in making a difference and pursuing a career in union organizing.

The deadline for applications is March 1, 2010.

Senate Majority Leader Reid attempted to get unanimous consent to move a stop-gap extension of the programs through March 7 while negotiations continue, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected.

Without timely congressional action, workers losing jobs after February 28 will only be eligible for 26 weeks of basic state benefits, and those participating in the federal extension programs will only be able to complete the extension in which they are participating, possibly losing months of assistance.

While most observers believe an extension ultimately will pass, the delay will cause mass confusion among the over 10 million unemployed workers receiving unemployment checks and cause states to spend unnecessary time and resources shutting down the extension software, responding to calls from UI claimants, and then starting up the programs again.

Your job matters. Whether it’s clearing the roads of snow and ice, providing health care services, ensuring public safety, or simply working hard for our communities, the vital services that AFSCME members like you provide make our country happen.

And right now, these services — and our jobs — are on the chopping block as state and local governments face massive budget shortfalls. Unless Congress invests in states and communities, more than three million jobs will be lost by 2012 — including hundreds of thousands of public service jobs.

That’s why I hope you’ll add your name to our new Jobs Now petition: we need to fight for our jobs and fix the economy.

Economists on the left and right agree that investing in our jobs — the vital public services that AFSCME members provide — is one of the best ways to save and create jobs. Plus, every dollar invested in public services grows the economy by $1.41 — and that helps put all Americans back to work.

Please join thousands of other AFSCME members and add your name to our petition today: Urge Congress to support and fight for aid to state and local governments to save and create jobs.

The last thing we need right now is more layoffs. Investing in state and local governments is one of the most sure-fire ways to help our economy — and our country — recover from the worst recession in generations. As Congress and the President make jobs their number one priority over the coming months, it’s vital that the working families and public service employees who are on the front lines of this crisis make our voices heard. Please join us.