WIN Week In Review October 3-5, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

The economic catastrophe caused by unregulated free market irresponsibility threatens millions of working people as well as the entire U.S. financial system. Economist like Josh Bivens at the Economic Policy Institute believes a bailout is needed, but it should be targeted to cushion the economic blow to working people.

[Bivens]: “Essentially it will transform what could be a real economic disaster back to the sort fo garden-variety recession that we’re in right now.”

Ed Ott is Executive Director of the New York City Central Labor Council. He wants to see direct aid to the millions of people at risk of losing their homes.

[Ott]: “Money in there so that people can refinance where it’s necessary. We’d like to see them use the force of the law to suspend all foreclosures.”

The California Nurses Association is sponsoring a new ad highlighting some of GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sara Palin’s comments. Here’s an excerpt from the ad campaign.

[Heartbeat]: Ad audio excerpt

The California Nurses Association says a new study from Bragg Associates, an actuary firm, says John McCain would have a one in four chance of dying in office from natural causes should he win the presidency. The CNA is calling on McCain to release his full medical records.

Machinists at Boeing remain steadfast on the picket lines. According to Business Week magazine, the strike is costing Boeing more than it would have cost to meet the union’s pension demands. IAM’s Tom Wrobleski.

[Wrobleski]: "Our members are committed. They tell that they are here to do whatever it takes to win this battle against the Boeing company."

The AFL-CIO is launching a new campaign reaching out to over a million union swing voters on the health care issue. The effort is targeted in battleground states including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. It centers on John McCain’s proposal to tax employer-based health care benefits and privatize Medicare.The AFL-CIO calls it a risky health care scheme that just further burdens already economically struggling workers and middle class families. A mass mailing, a million leaflets, more than 150,000 phone calls and home visits in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio are all part of this campaign. The AFL-CIO is in the midst of its largest campaign mobilization in history, contacting over 13 million voters in 24 priority states.

A new three-year contract proposal has been rejected by Qwest workers. Jesse Russell reports:

Qwest workers represented by the Communications Workers of America voted against a new three-year contract proposal on Tuesday. Although the authority to call a strike had been given to negotiators when the contract expired in August, both sides say negotiations are on going and no strike is in the forecast. Twenty thousand Qwest employees in 13 states are represented by the CWA.