Leo W. Gerard - United Steelworkers

As of press time, the status of health insurance
reform legislation was in limbo. But what is clearer
than ever is the message working people across the
nation are sending politicians on both sides of the
aisle: inaction is not acceptable.
In January, Massachusetts voters chose Republican Scott
Brown as their next U.S. senator, filling the vacancy created
when longtime Sen. Ted Kennedy died last year.
“It was a working-class revolt – a signal that in this
economic crisis, the American people demand jobs, health
care and an economy that works for them now – not political
business as usual,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
“It was a loud and clear message that our elected leaders and
our labor movement must do more for working people, do it
fast and do it smarter.”
International President Leo W. Gerard expressed similar
thoughts and said it’s important for USW members and others
to keep fighting and to know that their union is working for
them and their families.
Frustrated with status quo
“Working families are growing increasingly frustrated
with the status quo,” Gerard said. “It’s not about the right or
left, it’s about what’s right and what’s wrong. What’s right
for this country is action – not just talk – to create and sustain
good jobs, to fix our economy for Main Street, not just Wall
Street, and to approve health insurance reform that cuts costs,
covers every American and doesn’t do it by taxing our benefits.”
Proposed health insurance reform had not passed as
USW@Work went to print. The White House had listened
to some of our concerns regarding a proposed excise tax on
high-cost insurance plans.
Here’s where things stood at press time: An agreement
was reached in principle to exclude collectively bargained
plans from the tax until 2018 and to help in various other
ways that would reduce the impact of the tax on all middleclass
workers.
Essential reform components
The USW supports the progress that would help lessen the
impact on members, but prefers health insurance reform that
does not tax benefits at all. The union has been clear that we
support a plan with these essential components:
• Affordable options and reform of insurance practices
that will result in health care for all Americans.
• A public option that will lower costs by competing
with the private sector and offer coverage for Americans
who cannot afford alternatives.
• No taxation for employer-provided insurance and
rules to ensure big employers retain coverage.
• Shared responsibility by requiring all employers to
provide coverage, also known as “pay to play.”
• Significant cost containment to help families, retirees,
businesses and our governments.
• A federally funded catastrophic reinsurance program
to help employers and Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary
Associations (VEBAs) that provide benefits for
pre-Medicare retirees aged 55 to 64.
Visit www.usw.org for the latest.
Put this on your shopping list. Buy some Sylvania
Super Saver energy-efficient halogen light bulbs,
help save an endangered American industry and some
Steelworker jobs.
The incandescent light bulbs in use for more than a
century since the days of Thomas Alva Edison will begin to
fade away in 2012 under new federal regulations designed to
increase energy efficiency.
The Energy Independence and Security Act, signed into
law by former President Bush on Dec. 19, 2007, requires that
light bulbs sold in the United States use 25 to 30 percent less
energy.
As a result, the familiar incandescent light bulbs, which
fail to meet efficiency requirements in the law, will be phased
out over a few years. You can expect 100-watt bulbs to disappear
from markets in 2012. The 75-watt bulb will be gone by
2013. The smaller 40- and 60-watt bulbs will phase out by
2014.
As the technology changes, major manufacturers are relocating
production from the United States to China and other
countries.
Osram Sylvania, however, has decided to introduce a
new product, the Sylvania Super Saver halogen bulb, into the
United States and manufacture it at existing facilities, including
a USW-represented glass plant in Wellsboro, Pa.
Wellsboro currently produces the envelope or outer glass
portion of incandescent
light bulbs that are
assembled at Osram-
Sylvania’s plant in Saint
Mary’s, Pa. It also makes
bulbs for Christmas ornaments.
USW Local 1001, which represents about 110 Wellsboro
employees, had been warned that the new efficiency standards
will jeopardize its main product, the incandescent bulb.
But the new halogen bulb could, if it takes off in the market,
help to maintain employment at Wellsboro as the incandescent
bulbs are removed from sale.
“It will at least help us maintain the status quo,’’ said
Barry Mortimer, a member of Local 1001 and the local’s
Rapid Response coordinator.
No health hazards
The new Super Saver halogen bulbs can be produced on
existing equipment and do not have some of the potential
health hazards of its main competition, compact fluorescent
light (CFL) bulbs that are largely made in China with toxic
mercury as a key ingredient.
Workers handle mercury in either solid or liquid form
because a small amount of the metal is put into each CFL
bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light. Breaking
a CFL bulb at home requires an EPA-approved clean up
procedure.
Mercury is recognized as a health hazard by authorities
worldwide because its accumulation in the body can damage
the nervous system, lungs and kidneys. It poses a particular
threat to babies in the womb and young children.
American made
The American-made Super Saver halogen bulb has no
mercury, meets the government’s energy savings standards
and supports USW members. If you break one at home, clean
up the broken glass and throw it into the trash.
“Osram Sylvania is encasing halogen inside a glass capsule
and then putting that in a traditional-looking glass bulb
made at Wellsboro,” said Mickey Bolt, a field coordinator
with the Alliance for American Manufacturing, an organization
supported by the USW.
The bulbs are currently in production. So far, they can be
purchased in Menards and many BJ’s Wholesale Club stores
in the midwest. Lowe’s home improvement stores will carry
them starting this summer.
Until more retailers get on board, Mortimer said they can
be purchased on line at: http://www.sylvaniaonlinestore.com.
26 USW@Work • Winter 2010
USW@Work • Winter 2010 27