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In recent weeks, there has been notable GOP floundering on the issue of creating a road map to citizenship as part of an overall immigration policy bill. From Rand Paul and Jeb Bush, who both struck a vague position on the issue, to those like Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), who has previously come out in support of a legalization program without a citizenship option, Republicans are struggling to find a coherent position on their level of support for citizenship for 11 million new American immigrants.
Pharmacy chain CVS announced a new policy that will require 200,000 employees who receive health care through the corporation to submit personal health information to the company or face a $50 monthly fine, ABC News reports. Workers must submit their weight, body fat, glucose levels and other vital signs or pay an additional $600 per year for their existing health coverage. Employees have until May 1, 2014, to comply with the new policy or face the fine.
Calling sequestration “just a fancy word for a dumb idea,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the 750,000 job-killing, across-the-board budget cuts and other moves toward fiscal austerity will “further weaken the economy and cost jobs” and make even worse “the crisis of mass unemployment. Millions of Americans who want to work cannot find jobs.”Writing in a special report in The Hill on jobs and the economy, Trumka says:On some days, it seems like all of official Washington is racing to embrace the most destructive consensus since the Iraq war.
In more than 100 events across the country Wednesday, working families rallied outside lawmakers’ offices, federal agencies, military bases and elsewhere to shine a spotlight on the impact of the sequester’s across-the-board cuts that will cost more than 750,000 jobs this year alone and to call for its repeal.While most of the actions aimed at members of Congress were focused on Republicans who are using the sequester as leverage to get their way in Congress, in Beckley, W.Va., a group of more than 50 AFGE and other union members and community supporters received a shout out of support from Rep. Nick Rahall (D).
In his most recent column, Economic Policy Institute President Lawrence Mishel demolishes arguments in favor of "chained" CPI, which is often offered in grand bargain negotiations, saying it is nothing more than a way to explain away cuts to the program.
As you plan your Passover seders, make sure you check out these tasty union-made in America recipe ingredients and drinks. These highlights come from our friends at Labor 411, the union business directory from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Food and drink include those brought to you by the Machinists (IAM), United Farm Workers (UFW), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Teamsters (IBT).
Source: USW
Source: Workday MN
Source: Chicago Tribune
