Medicare for All: The Working People Weekly List

Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.

In Missouri, a Race to the Bottom: “The NAACP took the unusual step this week to declare a travel advisory to African Americans for the state of Missouri. This bold action came in response to legislation passed by the Missouri Legislature limiting workers’ ability to sue over discrimination. ‘With the Missouri Human Rights Act gutted, employers who want to engage in illegal workplace discrimination will have no fear of being held accountable,’ Missouri House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty told Ebony magazine. ‘While S.B. 43 might not quite return us to the days when businesses were free to hang ‘minorities need not apply’ signs in the window, it certainly reinforces the sentiment.’ For that reason, the Missouri AFL-CIO opposed S.B. 43.“

Counterpoint: How We Invest in Our Infrastructure Matters: “Strong infrastructure and a well-functioning transportation system are vital to the health of our economy, but for too long we’ve treated our infrastructure as though it doesn’t matter. And for too long, working people have paid the price.”

AFL-CIO Executive Council Backs Medicare for All: “The council’s health care statement, issued from the three-day meeting in late July at the George Meany Center in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md., first denounced congressional Republicans for trashing the Affordable Care Act.”

While Boeing Touts Profits, Workforce Shrinks: “Boeing executives are gushing over the company’s stock, up a whopping 58% over the last 12 months. Washington state’s homegrown aerospace giant left the Paris Air Show with 571 orders worth $75 billion. Its chief competitor, Airbus, had 336.”

The Economy Adds 209,000 Jobs in July, and Unemployment Little Changed at 4.3%: “The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, and unemployment was little changed at 4.3%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This continues the recovery of the labor market at a tempered rate, which means the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee should continue to let the economy grow and not raise interest rates.”

Joe Smith Jr.: Laborer by Day, Boxing Champion by Night: “Quick, what’s the first thing you think of when you hear about a boxer who holds the World Boxing Council international light heavyweight championship and who sent boxing legend Bernard Hopkins into retirement with a TKO that literally knocked Hopkins out of the ring? You certainly wouldn’t think of Joe Smith Jr., the boxer who ended Hopkins’ career and who is an active member of Laborers (LIUNA) Local 66.”

Bull Connor, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Labor Movement: “In the first week of May 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. faced a painful dilemma as he sought to conclude the great Birmingham, Ala., campaign. The labor movement helped solve this dilemma and a great civil rights victory was won. Jerome A. ‘Buddy’ Cooper, my mentor in the Birmingham union law firm where I worked years later, told me and others of his small but fascinating role in these events. It’s a story of how our labor movement has sometimes lived up to its role in the larger civil and human rights movement.”

Organizing in Digital Media Continues to Grow: Worker Wins: “Our latest roundup of worker wins begins with a hard-fought victory at The New School. Other successes include the growing trends of digital media newsrooms organizing and progressive organizations living up to their professed values by voluntarily recognizing employees who choose to join together for collective bargaining purposes.”

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day: “Today, we commiserate Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. The gap between the earnings of black women and white men is so large that, essentially, up to today black women have been working for free. Think of it as the modern-day equivalent of the constitutional count of slaves as three-fifths of a person.”

A Big Week for Your Health Care: “Sometimes failure is a good thing. That was especially true last week when the U.S. Senate failed to pass legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act. It meant that Congress was stopped from taking health care away from tens of millions of Americans, at least for now.”

‘Skinny Repeal’ and the Senate Health Debate: “Yesterday, two major proposals that would have rolled back the Affordable Care Act’s progress in expanding coverage were defeated by bipartisan majorities. Senate leadership is now pulling together a so-called ‘skinny’ bill, which they hope will attract the 50 votes needed to pass the chamber and move to a conference committee with the House.”

AFL-CIO Honors Korean Labor Leader Han with Human Rights Award, Call for His Release from Prison: “President Han Sang-gyun of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has spent his life fighting for the rights of workers and has paid a high price. Han has been in jail since December 2015, serving a three-year sentence for defending trade union rights and fighting back against corporate corruption and the repressive government of former President Park Geun-hye. For his perseverance in the face of anti-democratic repression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council this week honored President Han with the AFL-CIO’s annual George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, and joined the global labor movement in calling for his release.”

Republican Joint Employer Legislation Takes Away Worker Freedoms: “In our fragmented workplaces with perma-temps, contracted workers, agency employees and subcontracting, we must be vigilant so every worker is protected and paid fairly, and that goes double when it comes to protecting the freedom to stand in unity for better pay and working conditions.”

Trump Administration Attacks Overtime Pay: “The Trump administration has begun a process to undo President Obama’s overtime pay rule and deny working people a pay raise.”