Updates From Copenhagen

Follow Barbara Byrd and the rest of the International Labor Delegation as They Weigh In

Oregon AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Byrd is heading to Copenhagen tomorrow as part of the international labor delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference there.

In two years the Kyoto Accord on global warming, which many countries signed on to so that they could collectively lower their emissions and slow global warming, will expire. Agreements reached in Copenhagen will replace that Accord. Labor delegates from the United States, Canada, and dozens of other countries, are attending the conference to ensure that any agreement includes a just transition to a new economy for workers and their communities.

"We must address climate change?" says Byrd, "but we must address it in a way that doesn't leave working people on the sidelines, displaced or unemployed. As we transition to a new economy there must be measures in place to help workers gain the skills they need to continue to qualify for the good jobs that are available in their communities."

Barbara will be sending us periodic updates from the conference - check back to our website, or our facebook page to keep up!

Job Creation: What's Happening to Help You?

Yesterday President Obama gave a speech on the economy and job creation, where he acknowledged that we need to see a major push in private sector hiring.

The investments the President proposed in infrastructure are right in line with the investments union leaders have been calling for, and will help spur hiring now and ensure that our infrastructure is ready when we need it in the future. The investments in energy efficiency - which saves struggling homeowners money, increases home values, and puts local community members to work all while protecting our environment - are in line with the work we've done here in Oregon, and work being done by the AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs. Many of President Obama's other proposals have the potential to create the real jobs Americans need in the private sector.

But we still must make sure they are good jobs. Good jobs allow people to start spending again, increasing demand and growing businesses; they allow Americans to invest in their futures and their children's futures; they create a sustainable paycheck that can support a family and can be depended on into the future. Leaders from the AFL-CIO are watching what's happening in job creation closely to make sure that the jobs we create are the good jobs that will improve our economy - jobs that pay a living wage, provide benefits, and are long lasting; not just go-nowhere jobs that bring in a meager paycheck for a month or two.

Senate Health Care Update

The Senate is much closer, today, to a final health care bill. Many of the aspects in that bill will help Middle Class Americans get more affordable, higher quality, health care - like opening Medicare to people 55-64, and many of the Freshman Senators' cost containment proposals. Others don't look so good - like the still-excessive benefits tax, and the lack of a real public option to force private insurance corporations to compete.

Many good Senators are still working to improve the bill and we support their work, but we are excited that there may soon be consensus around ideas that would withstand a filibuster. Americans need reform now. In fact, they needed reform last summer, when we originally thought Congress would act.

It's well passed time for the Senate to pass a bill to send to conference committee, where it will be combined with the awaiting House Bill and the final details will become clear.