Today, you can join in a million-person march for health care in Washington, D.C., from this Washington. MoveOn, Health Care for America Now! and other groups are staging a virtual march on the nation’s capital to tell Congress it’s time to stop stalling and pass real health care reform.

The virtual march coincides with a real life Capitol Hill rally and the arrival in Washington -- after an eight-day, 135-mile march from Philadelphia -- of a group of health care activists honoring the memory of Melanie Shouse. The St. Louis, Mo., health care activist recently lost her battle with breast cancer after her insurance company refused to pay for treatment her doctors said she needed. She was 41 years old.

The virtual and real rallies -- the day before the televised White House health care summit -- are designed to tell lawmakers they have had plenty of time to discuss and debate health care reform over the past year, and now it’s their job to make it happen.

Click here to join the virtual march and here, here and here for reports, photos and videos from Melanie’s March

Local 191 is working hard to see that Hb 3147 is passed in this years legislative session. However; just like last year this item is receiving a lot of talk and very little action.  Hb 3147 will put many of our members back to work if passed. 

Currently the bill sits in the House Finance Committee awaiting consideration, where it has sat since February 9th.  Please contact the members of the rules committee encouraging them to move it out with a favorable vote.

Most likely you will be informed that the cut-off date for this bill has passed and will not be able to continue moving forward: however, this bill has NTIB (Needed To Implement Budget) status and is still alive.  Just make sure thatthey know how important this bill is to our members getting some work.

Rules Committee contact info.

Neil S Sidhu
Political Director IBEW Local 191

Local 191 could begin receiving requests for workers in Canada very soon.  As such we would like to ecourage all of you with application packets currently out to get them turned as promptly as possible.  For those of you who have not yet filled out an application, and are still considering  it, we encourage you to come into the hall and fill one out.  

If you have any questions contact Travis Patterson at the Everett Hall.

The following guest column by Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, appeared in Sunday's edition of The (Tacoma) News Tribune. It was written in response to a previous TNT editorial on thesubject of our public nonprofit workers' compensation system.

A News Tribune editorial (1-29) argued that because of unions’ political threats, the Democratic majority in Olympia is ignoring a “mandate” from business interests to lower workers’ compensation premiums. Unless business-backed reforms that cut injured workers’ benefits are approved, the editorial warns that the Building Industry Association of Washington will push
its “drastic alternative” of privatizing the system.

The editorial doesn’t mention labor’s motivations for protecting our existing system – except perhaps that we like to bully elected officials for sport – so I thought I’d describe them. They are the injured workers.

Those people are mentioned just once in your editorial, when you suggest they are all lining up for the lifetime pensions that the state is handing out as fast as it can.

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka On President’s State of the Union
Address, January 27, 2010:

TUMWATER – The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has launched a Twitter site as its newest “social networking” feature. It also has consolidated its YouTube videos into one easy-to-use listing.

Links to both L&I’s Twitter and YouTube sites are available on the agency’s Web site, www.Lni.wa.gov.

L&I’s Twitter is a Web-based micro-blogging site with a range of information about such things as workers’ compensation, workplace safety and health, H1N1 flu and more. Some “tweets” on the site link to informative articles published in magazines and newspapers. Go to www.Lni.wa.gov/main/contactinfo/twitter/ for more information.

YouTube videos related to workplace safety and health are now listed at www.youtube.com/user/LaborandIndustries1. Topics cover such issues as heat stress, ergonomics, workplace-safety procedures, chainsaw safety and more. Also available on YouTube are winning student-made videos about workplace safety, and L&I’s
“Work Safe. Home Safe” public service campaign.

L&I also shares information through 27 listservs that provide information important to specific groups of people. These listservs can be viewed at www.Lni.wa.gov/Main/Listservs/.