WIN Week In Review March 28-30, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

If the UAW strike at American Axle doesn’t end soon, GM will be forced in April to shut down the first auto plant shuttered by the strike. GM has already stopped or slowed down production at 29 plants involved with making trucks, vans and SUV’s. UAW workers at American Axle are the victims of an assault by the company on their wages and benefits. Because the profitable American Axle wants to cut wages in half and slash benefits, as many as 40,000 jobs could be cut from U.S. payrolls in March according to economist Brian Bethune. Bethune says that would cut three tenths of a percent from U.S. economic growth this quarter.

---

Tales from the nation's healthcare crisis front gathered in an AFL-CIO healthcare survey vividly illustrate the tragedies and hardships of a broken U.S. health care system. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

[Sweeney]: "The survey results paint a devastating picture of a health care system that costs too much, covers too little, leaves too many behind, and is getting worse."

Heather Booth heads the AFL-CIO’s health care reform effort aimed at achieving reform in 2009.

[Booth]: "We're now focusing this health care campaign through the election to encourage, persuade and hold candidates accountable to these principles so they become real champions of reform."

Kitty Vincent lost a loved one to cancer because she had no insurance.

[Vincent]:"She also didn't qualify for aid from the county or state of Michigan because she worked too much. By September of 2006, she was dead. Medicaid was finally approved after her death and they continued to send bills to my house in her name."

---

Families USA has finished the first-ever study breaking down state by state how many die every year due to a lack of health insurance. Jesse Russell reports:

So far the organization has completed studies in 13 of the 50 states, and on Tuesday held a conference call regarding the results in Wisconsin. According to Families USA, 10.7 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 64 living in Wisconsin are uninsured and they estimate that approximately 250 Wisconsinites died in 2006 due to being uninsured. Dr. Barbara Horner-Ibler, medical director at the Bread of Healing Clinic in Milwaukee said that it isn’t just a problem of the uninsured, but also of insurance holders with deductibles that are too high:

[Horner-Ibler]: "Patients who have high deductible plans who are delaying care because they do not have access."

---

Patient care and nurse staffing levels are at the heart of the ten-day strike by 4,000 nurses against Sutter Hospitals in the San Francisco area. California Nurses Association RN Jan Rodolfo walked a Berkeley picket line on Monday.

[Rodolfo]: "From a patient’s perspective it’s about when you hit your call light, does a nurse come right away? If you’re in pain or short of breath, is a nurse able to get there right away to give you what you need? As nurses, it’s about whether or not we’re provided with adequate meal and break coverage. Right now the hospitals put a lot of pressure on us to walk away from our patients to take a break, without providing us someone who can take care of our patients in our absence.”