Since the founding of our union the officers and members of NCFO have accomplished a great deal through the collective bargaining process to improve the lives of NCFO working families. Additionally, NCFO has historically worked side by side with other unions in the legislative arena to get laws enacted that help working families (union and nonunion) throughout our society. For example, Social Security, Family and Medical Leave, Fair Labor Standards, Medicare, unemployment compensation and Occupational Safety and Health are but a few of the laws and programs that have made a crucial difference in the lives of working Americans.
Most historians agree that a preponderance of these “family friendly” laws and programs exist throughout the United States today only as a result of the collective effort of labor unions such as NCFO and the working families they represent.
Today there are crucial national issues effecting not only NCFO families but all working people throughout the United States. None of these issues will be adequately and fairly addressed without the active involvement of working families. Together we must prod lawmakers to stand up for working family positions. We must also work to elect officials who will represent working families rather than union busting, wealthy families.
Among these key issues:
FAIR TAXATION
The share of taxes paid by corporate America and the most economically comfortable in our nation keeps declining, leaving more of the burden on working families and creating funding problems for important government services. For more information see: Citizens for Tax Justice at www.ctj.org
HEALTH CARE
It won’t be too long before the cost of health insurance for a family of four under a union contract will be more than what a minimum wage worker earns in a year. Potential wage increases are often eaten up by insurance costs in contract negotiation. Meanwhile, almost 40 million Americans have no health coverage. Prescription drug prices are going through the roof and Medicare has become inadequate for seniors. For more information see: www.familiesusa.org
FAIR TRADE
In the globalized economy, transnational corporations push international trade pacts in the name of “free trade.” But most of the agreements are geared only to feed the greed of these corporations who destroy good jobs in the United States while exploiting workers in other nations. These international corporate barons wreak economic havoc and environmental destruction as they go. For more information see: www.epi.org
SOCIAL SECURITY
Will the guaranteed retirement benefits of Social Security, America’s most successful anti-poverty program, be there for future generations of American seniors or will each American have to gamble in the stock market while investment and insurance companies make billions in profits. For more information see: www.aflcio.org/socialsecurity
AMTRAK
There is no adequate passenger rail service anywhere in the world that exists without considerable public subsidies. Yet privatization zealots in the U.S. want to break up or destroy major segments of Amtrak. Privatizing Amtrak would diminish, and in some areas eliminate, passenger rail service for millions of Americans. For more information see: www.ttd.org