Election 2016: Leveling the Playing Field For The American Worker

Senator Elizabeth Warren

As the political battlefield heats up for the 2016 Presidential Election, the issues dividing the American worker and corporate America grow. The recent passage of the Federal Governmental funding bill of in excess of $1.1 Trillion Dollars gives us insight into the major political/economic issue of growing inequality.

Funding the $2 Billion Dollar, 2016 Presidential Campaign, will require major contributions. A huge portion of that money will come from Corporate America. Even so, people actually vote and not corporations.

"Wall Street is one of the Democratic party’s biggest contributors."

Robert Reich

 "[Hillary] Clinton is obviously tough, but she just can’t speak with a clear voice against Wall Street and Washington insiders. Warren’s wing shows increasing passion and strength, both in opposing certain Obama nominees and in last week’s budget fight."

Click here to read "Warren Can Win" authored by David Brooks in the NY Times 12/15/2014

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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United Airlines' Outsourcing Jobs to Company That Pays Near-Poverty Wages Is Shameful

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

On October 1, United Airlines is planning to outsource 630 gate agent jobs at 12 airports to companies that pay near-poverty level wages. The airports affected include Salt Lake City; Charlotte, North Carolina; Pensacola, Florida; Detroit and Des Moines, Iowa.

As a result hundreds of employees who formerly made middle-class, living wages will be forced to transfer to other cities, take early retirement or seek employment elsewhere. Union employees who have been with the company for years -- many making a respectable $50,000-per-year salaries -- will be replaced by non-union employees who will be paid less than half -- between $9.50 and $12 per hour.

Nine-fifty an hour is a poverty-level wage if you are trying to support a family -- and $12 barely exceeds the poverty level. In fact at $12 a family of three makes so little that they are eligible for food stamps.

That, in effect, means that United and its subcontractor will be subsidized by American taxpayers for the food stamp payments made to their new low-wage workers.

United's move to convert middle-class jobs into near-poverty level jobs is shameful -- it's that simple.

And United's move to cut employee pay is emblematic of corporate America's systematic campaign to lower wages and destroy the American middle class in order to increase returns to Wall Street shareholders. It is exactly the kind of action that must come to a screeching halt if the middle class is to survive -- and our children are once again be able to look...


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Bloomberg Public Health Legacy Lauded In NYC

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

Michael Bloomberg steered New York City through economic recession, a catastrophic hurricane and the aftermath of 9/11, but he may always be remembered, accurately or not, as the mayor who wanted to ban the Big Gulp. After 12 years, Bloomberg leaves office Dec. 31 with a unique record as a public health crusader who attacked cigarettes, artery-clogging fats and big sugary drinks with as much zeal as most mayors go after crack dens and graffiti. And while Bloomberg's audacious initiatives weren't uniformly successful, often leading to court challenges and criticisms he was turning New York into a "nanny state," experts say they helped reshape just how far a city government can go to protect people from an unhealthy lifestyle. "He has been a transformative leader," said Dr. Linda Fried, dean of Columbia University's school of public health. "He has created a model for how to improve a city's health." Coming into office as a billionaire businessman who made his fortune selling data to Wall Street, Bloomberg was accustomed to using hard, cold research to drive decisions, and it was an approach he used effectively on matters of public health. Bloomberg pushed to ban smoking in indoor public spaces and prohibit cigarette sales to anyone under 21. He got artificial trans-fat banned from restaurant food — an action that led fast food giants like McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts to change their recipes rather than lose access to the...

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Jobs Report Becomes a Casualty of Shutdown

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

On the first Friday morning of almost any other month, from the trading floors of Wall Street to the hushed hallways of the Federal Reserve, all the attention would be focused on two numbers: the latest government estimates for unemployment and job creation. This Friday, much of the government will be closed. As a result, the economists and statisticians at the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be at home, and everyone from Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed’s chairman, to thousands of traders glued to their Bloomberg screens, will be left without one of the most important clues to the state of the economy. The mystery is heightened by the question of just how much of an impact the shutdown itself will have. And while the job numbers from last month cannot answer that question, economists almost universally agree that the cost to the economy depends on how long the standoff lasts, and whether the much larger danger of a debt default can be averted. “If it’s short, it’s barely a blip on the radar,” said Ellen Zentner, senior United States economist at Morgan Stanley. “If a shutdown is prolonged, it’s a whole different story.” Like many Wall Street economists, Ms. Zentner estimates that each week of the shutdown will shave one-tenth to two-tenths of a percentage point off economic growth in the final quarter of 2013. That may not sound like much, especially in a $16 trillion economy. And during the last extended shutdown in the mid-1990s...

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Occupy Wall Street And The Future Of Workers Compensation

The same social/economic forces  present on streets of New York City over a century go, are now re-emerging in the birth of the Occupy Wall Street [OWS] movement. The workers, unions and concerned citizens that are are patriotically seeking to again balance the  social/economic system mirror the century old movement and aspirations that its genesis in the Triangle Shirt Waist tragedy. This time the inspiration generated may evolve into a new and creative system to prevent workplace injuries and compensation. The new system maybe target entirely  to safety and prevention rather than solely compensating for injuries and exposures sustained at work.

Over a century ago the failure of employers to protect workers’ health and safety resulted in the tragedy of the Triangle Shirt Waist factory fire. Following that fatal conflagration emanated the promulgation of the modern day workers’ compensation system. It arose out of frustration and anger and was displayed in the street.

The recent efforts to dismantle the national network of workers’ compensation systems through legislation and regulation has effectively rendered the system both costly to navigate and burdensome to obtain benefits. Efforts have been made to make it more difficult to establish a claim. Occupational disease claims once considered compensable are not being denied and litigated on a regular basis.

The present workers’ compensation system has been emasculated by the competing efforts of Industry to reduce access to benefits at earlier stages of the process, and by a transformed industrial/economic system.  Soaring medical costs necessitated by the need to provide personalized medical treatment protocols to cure for complex diseases are raging havoc to the program. Medical  costs have soared and insurance carriers are continuing to raise rates. The 99% that constitutes the core group of the Occupy Wall Street movement is either unemployed or disabled and unable to work.  They seek good jobs which are safe, and medical benefits that are effectively and efficiently delivered.

Counting failure is no longer an option. Jobs that injury workers and a system that delays and denies benefits for injuries and exposures at work, is not beneficial to nation, its Industry and workers. Hopefully American creativity will give birth to a new system, and the Occupy Wall Street movement will be that catalyst. 

For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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AIG -The Inside Job

Advertised as 'The movie that took over $20 Trillion dollars to make", Inside Job, is now on the screens of theaters throughout the nation. The movie's premise is that the recent,  systemic,   financial collapse was founded upon AIG's  feared inability to payout on the claims for failed sophisticated financial instruments that AIG insured. The resulting consequences of the AIG bailout  became a vehicle to shelter and fund Wall Street at enormous taxpayer expense.

The lack of criminal accountability for AIG, and the insurance industry's inadequate disclosures, poor ratings and reserves, bad investments and resulting political cover, left the industry destitute and unable to meet its fiduciary obligations to its insureds. Despite all of the bad news, AIG continued to pay bonuses to its executives, scheduled junkets and act as a conduit for payments. The movie questions who is actually regulating the financial/insurance industry, and whether the industry has now become so fused with American politics that Wall Street is insulated no  matter which political party is at the helm.

Workers' Compensation insurance coverage is premised on the legislative intent to provide remedial coverage and summary benefits. When major players in the insurance industry jeopardize that coverage, then the result impacts the ability of the system to function and causes lingering inability to pay. Government regulators have the moral, if not the legal obligation, to protect the system.

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