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COPE Archives...
Committee on Political Education: PCCFF / AFT / AFL-CIO / Local # 2277 |
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| 06/25/2009 11:50:02 AM | |
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AFT-OREGON WINTER SCHOOL /
FEBRUARY 3-5 / NEWPORT, OR Cope 101: Intro to Political Action Member Recruitment and Involvement Grievance Fundamentals Click here to see the Winter School brochure |
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| Click here to see the Winter School brochure | COPE 101 |
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About Next Federation Meeting |
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Senate: S. 1762, the Higher Education Access Act of 2007 House: HR 3043 (Appropriation: Labor, HHS, Education; http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas) Michael W. Morrow wrote: Federation folk; This info in from AFT on last week's House action to increase Pell grants for our students--up from 07-08 $4310 to $4700 for the following year. 53 Republicans joined every Democrat except one to almost achieve the 2/3 necessary to override a likely Bush veto. Oregon's four Democratic reps supported it, while Republican Walden (OR-2) voted against it. The Senate has passed a similar bill, but apparently another vote is necessary before it goes into reconciliation (the House and Senate versions will differ). Congress leaves next week for a summer recess, so it appears likely that nothing will happen until late in August. Thanks, Michael Morrow Fac Fed vp for Political Action From AFT e-Activist newsletterm, July 23: "Late last week, in a 276-140 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill for education, health care and labor programs that increases spending by nearly $7 billion over the current level and more than $10 billion above President Bush's budget request for fiscal year 2008. Your advocacy was crucial to this victory. AFT e-Activists contacted hundreds of representatives, and your voices were heard loudly and clearly on Capitol Hill. To see how your representative voted, click here >(http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll686.xml). ...I hope summer...is going great for everyone, but even though some of us are enjoying a little R&R, things are still happening in D.C. that affect us and our students. I'm forwarding two pieces of information from the AFT Online bulletin that just hit my mailbox. Many of you are aware that the final Republican Congress, in winter of last year, doubled interest rates on student loans. And some of you are aware of the current scandals around predatory lenders taking advantage of student borrowers. And some of you are also aware that PCC student borrowing went from $10 million five years ago to over $30 million last year. That's huge, and is not restricted to PCC. The "average" student graduating with a bachelor's degree this month now has over $18,000 in student debt. So this is very important for access--if students can't afford to be here, they won't come. And for many, who really want to be here, massive borrowing is their only option. The current Congress is beginning to address this "elephant in the room" problem in higher education. I hope you find the information useful, and you might even want to communicate with your U.S. Senators and/or Congressperson about this legislation. Michael Morrow Fed VP for Political Action AFT AND AFL-CIO SOUND ALARM ON STUDENT-LOAN LENDERS As if earning interest as high as 20 percent on college loans isn't enough, the lending industry is now engaged in a frantic campaign to preserve the spoils of its ill-gotten gains, and they're asking for labor's help to do it. AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka recently wrote to the federation's affiliates to warn them that the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) and other organizations associated with the lending industry are urging unions to contact Congress to oppose changes to the federal student loan programs because, the lenders maintain, the changes would hurt working families. In fact, contrary to these assertions, the changes would reduce interest rates and fees, and shift money into Pell Grants. As AFT legislation director Tor Cowan wrote in the AFT's own letter to affiliates: "They are asking unions to lobby Congress to take a position that is NOT in the best interest of union families." As Congress turns to reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, and especially the multibillion-dollar student aid programs, it has looked to shift resources from lenders to students. Committees in both the House and Senate have now passed legislation that substantially reduces excessive federal subsidies paid to lenders in the college loan industry. (See related story below.) SENATE BILLS SHIFT AID DOLLARS FROM LENDERS TO STUDENTS Two bills that came out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 20 will, if passed by the full Senate, re-chart the course on federal financial aid. One, a budget reconciliation bill (the Higher Education Access Act of 2007) that passed the committee on a 17-3 vote, would cut $18.3 billion from student loan providers' profits and shift $17.3 billion of that into the pockets of students. On June 13, the House Education and Labor Committee passed a similar budget bill, which cut lender subsidies even more--by $19 billion. The second Senate bill, the Higher Education Amendments of 2007, is the Senate committee's proposed renewal of the Higher Education Act, and it passed on a unanimous vote. The AFT lauded the package for increasing the public's access to higher education and making it more affordable for American students. But AFT legislation director Tor Cowan also expressed concerns about a few measures in the bills, such as how the federal government plans to oversee curriculum and teaching matters, award federal dollars to for-profit institutions, and use the data it collects from higher ed institutions. The full Senate is expected to vote on the bills this summer. The House has not yet taken up its bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. |
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Good morning Federation folk; We've been providing you with updates on Salem happenings concerning issues important to us, and we'll continue to do so--especially as we get closer to final budget numbers for community colleges. And as we go into our contract re-opener, the very fact that we are represented by a union means we stand a much better chance of protecting our wages and benefits. But a huge majority of Americans lack the right to organize at work, so I thought this quick tidbit would be interesting, as the most important workers' rights bill in many years was just introduced in the U.S. Senate, and things heat up. Find out about The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), at: http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm As many of you know, under the Bush administration the already pro-business NLRB has swung so far anti-worker that businesses across the country have been emboldened to become much more aggressive in preventing employees from organizing. The Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen workers' rights to form unions to negotiate for better wages, health care, and working conditions. From AFL, 10 key facts about this act, and organizing: 1. America�s workers want to form unions. Research shows nearly 60 million would form a union tomorrow if given the chance. 2. Too few ever get that chance because employers routinely block their efforts to form unions and our current legal system is too broken to stop them. As many as one-quarter of employers illegally fire workers who try to form unions. 3. The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by: · · · 4. In the 110th Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act has widespread support. 5. More than three-quarters of Americans�77 percent�support strong laws that give employees the freedom to make their own choice about whether to have a union in their workplace without interference from management (PDF). 6. Allowing working people to choose for themselves whether to have a union is the key step toward rebuilding America�s middle class. Union membership brings better wages and benefits and a real voice on the job (PDF). It�s no accident that the 25-year decline in workers� wages in our country has paralleled a 25-year slide in the size of the America�s unions. 7. The Employee Free Choice Act would put democracy back into the workplace. Majority sign-up would ensure the decision whether to form a union was made by majority choice, not by the employer unilaterally. 8. Workers can still vote under the Employee Free Choice Act. At any time, if 30 percent of the workers want an election, they can have one. 9. Once they have a union, workers also vote to elect their union representatives. The Employee Free Choice Act has the support of hundreds of respected organizations and individuals�major religious denominations, academics and civil and human rights groups and others. 10. The AFL-CIO union movement is working in many ways to restore good jobs, health care and retirement security�but passing the Employee Free Choice Act is our top priority because we cannot create balance for working people or rebuild the middle class unless workers genuinely have the freedom to form unions for a better life. America's working families have the right to make ends meet! If passed, the bipartisan legislation would: · · · · Shamefully, when faced with organizing drives 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and, 91 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors? The Employee Free Choice Act would strengthen workers' rights to form unions to negotiate for better wages, health care, and working conditions. The Employee Free Choice Act is the most important workers' rights legislation to come along in decades. If passed, the bipartisan legislation would hold anti-union employers accountable, guarantee workers a fair, simple, direct method for organizing, and force employers to stop dragging out contract negotiations. Workers shouldn't have to fight so hard to form unions, and we can win this battle - in Congress and in the workplace. If you'd like to sign a petition that will get to the Senate (on your own time, and your own dime, of course): http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/832659976?z00m=9427693&z00m=9427693<l=1177604716 |
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Union Members and others... Apologies for this piece of news during what I hope is--for all of us--a joyful season, but this is, for our students, very important information. As we finish up with finals and look forward to some time off, Congress is trying to wrap up their funding package, including education funding, for FY06. Yesterday the House voted, on almost a straight party-line vote (all 200 Dems voted against, as did Independent Bernie Sanders and twelve Republicans; all the yea votes were Republicans), to cut K-12 funding in key areas, as well as keeping financial aid flat--for the fourth straight year. While college tuition has gone up approximately 50% over the past five years, Pell Grants have gone from $4,000 to $4050--a 1% increase, with no change over the past four. And federal loan amounts have been flat for longer than that. Currently over 5,000 full-time PCC students receive Pell grants, and approximately 2700 PCC students receiving Pell are also parents. This funding is vital, and Congress--in order to continue to fund tax cuts basically aimed at the top 1%--are making is more difficult for our students. As you may be aware, the $50 billion long-term cut which has also passed the House also includes huge increases in interest on student loans--increasing the average loan repay by approximately $6,000. Again, to allow the massive tax cuts for the most well-off Americans. Apologies for the metaphor, but this is another huge gift in the already massive stockings hung by our wealthiest Americans, and lumps of coal for students struggling to become part of what used to be the "American Dream," via the path of education. If you would like to contact United States Senator - Gordon Smith or Senator Ron Wyden--the Senate will vote on this, perhaps today--and let them know that this bill badly hurts the nearly 50% of PCC's full-time students receiving financial aid, information is provided below. Thanks, Michael Morrow COPE VP mmorrow@pcc.edu This from AFT - American Federation of Teachers:
The Worst Education Spending Bill in a Decade
Senate To Vote on Same Measure Tomorrow The House today (Wednesday) passed the second FY06 Labor-HHS-Ed
conference report by a vote of 215-213, with 12 Republicans voting |
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