Labor Leaders Campaign for Health Coverage

Describing the lack of health insurance as California’s most pressing problem, organized labor launched a statewide campaign Tuesday to pass legislation that would require employers to pay the costs of medical coverage for workers.

At a raucous Capitol rally and march, labor leaders and union members proclaimed passage of Senate Bill 2 as their top legislative priority for the year. The bill, co-sponsored by state Senate President Pro Tem John L. Burton (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), would require employers to provide health insurance to workers and their dependents or pay into a state health insurance fund.

“If you think about it, it’s enough to make you cry,” said Rosalina Garcia, describing the impossibility of paying for health care on her income as a $15,000-a-year janitor. “We’re not asking for a handout. We’re working hard and we deserve benefits.”

Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, described SB 2 as “the most important bill in the state of California and the most important bill in America right now.”

“No one ought to be without health care,” said Pulaski, addressing several hundred cheering union members outside the Capitol. “It’s time to make a change in California.”

An estimated 6 million Californians -- nearly one in six -- lack health insurance. Business groups, however, say they can’t afford to pick up the cost of covering uninsured workers.

“The issue is: Who is going to pay for it?” said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the bill.

Any mandate requiring employers to provide health coverage to their workers would fall most heavily on small businesses that can least afford it, he said.

He also questioned the timing of the proposal, with the state facing a budget shortfall of up to $35 billion over the next 16 months.

“I find it very curious that the state of California can’t fund existing programs and [supporters of SB 2] are talking about raising taxes to fund new programs,” Zaremberg said. “The timing is a huge disconnect with reality in terms of how the state economy and budget is.”

Burton, however, said the legislation would save tax money that is currently being spent on the medical needs of uninsured workers. It would also “level the playing field” for employers who already provide health insurance to their employees, he said.

“It is time that the taxpayers stop subsidizing the Wal-Marts of the world,” said Burton. “It’s time that the union employers stop subsidizing the Wal-Marts of the world.”

Gov. Gray Davis doesn’t have a position on the bill, said press secretary Steven Maviglio.

Following the Capitol rally, Pulaski and hundreds of union members -- carrying placards with slogans like “Health Care is a Human Right!” and “Healthy Workers, Healthy California” -- marched to the Wells Fargo Financial Center in Sacramento. The building’s owner uses a cleaning service that doesn’t provide health benefits to the families of janitors, Pulaski said.

“This is so important because it dramatically affects so many people,” said Pulaski. “The vast, vast majority of the uninsured are non-union. But it’s not about union and non-union. It’s about caring for everybody in the state.”

One of the rally speakers was a San Diego electrician named Susan Ertman, 35, who talked about the struggles she and her two children faced before she found a job that provided health coverage.

She recalled taking her asthmatic daughter to an emergency room for treatment whenever she ran out of medicine and suffered an asthma attack. She said her own treatment for uterine cancer was botched because she lacked health coverage.

“I’m just grateful for my union’s insurance, so I’ll never have to endure these problems again and can sleep knowing my children are taken care of,” Ertman said.

Zaremberg said any solution -- especially when it comes to workers at small businesses -- would have to split premium costs between employers and employees.

“Most employers would love to provide health-care benefits to their employees, if they could afford it,” he said.

The union campaign comes as business groups and their Republican allies are trying to roll back several major labor initiatives that were passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Davis last year, including paid family leave.

Labor leaders brushed off the business counteroffensive.

“Those Republicans always vote for more profits for business and they always vote against protections for regular people,” Pulaski said. “It’s their usual mischief. They don’t have anywhere near enough votes, so we’re not worried about it.”