Transcript More than three-quarters of us have dependents

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Our Challenge
John August, Executive Director
Union Delegate Conference, March 24, 2012
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Since the Great Recession “ended,” June 2009:
• Inflation-adjusted median
household income fell 6.7%,
to $49,909
• Average time out of work for
those who lost jobs: 40.5
weeks
• Average earnings of those
returning to work fell by
17.5% compared to their
previous job
Since the Great Recession “ended,” June 2009:
The top 5% of households
obtained 82% of total
wealth gains in U.S. from
1983-2009
The bottom 60% of
households had less
wealth in 2009 than in
1983
Since the Great Recession “ended,” June 2009:
The poverty rate is now at 15.1%, or 46.2 million
people. One-third are children.
The average cost of family health care coverage is
more than $15,000/year.
Digging deeper into the data
“All told 100 million people – one
in three Americans – either live in
poverty or in the fretful zone just
above it.”
-New York Times, November 19, 2011
Somewhere between destitute and vulnerable
More and more people – between one-third and one-half the
population – are somewhere between destitute and vulnerable.
It’s worse when we take into account:
• Huge personal debt
• Lack of savings or assets
• Loss of trillions of dollars in home equity
• Record unemployment
• Loss of retirement savings in stock market and early
withdrawals made to survive
Percentage change in median net worth by
age of householder, 2005-2009
Source: Pew Research Center
Share of householders with no net worth or
negative net worth, 1984, 2005 and 2009
Source: Pew Research Center
Retirement confidence hits new low
The percentage of workers “not at all confident” about
having enough money for retirement grew from 22% in
2010, to 27% in 2011
• Highest level measured in the 23 years of the
survey.
The percentage “very confident” shrank to 13%.
- Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2011
Vulnerability in old age
Single women of the baby-boomer generation are
particularly vulnerable to having inadequate retirement
income – and things look even worse for post-baby-boomer
generations.
“For single females that are early boomers, 47 percent will
run short (on retirement savings) within 10 years. So if you
retire at 65, by the time you turn 75 … you have nothing left
other than Social Security” or proceeds from a defined
benefit plan.”
- Jack VanDerhei, Employee Benefit Research Institute
How are workers at KP doing?
Two-thirds of
Union Coalition
workers at KP
make less than
$60,000 a year.
How are workers at KP doing?
Forty-three
percent of Union
Coalition
workers at KP
make less than
$50,000 a year.
How are workers at KP doing?
The median income
of US households
is $49,455.
The median income
of Coalition members
is $50,988.
Many families depend on our incomes
More that three-quarters (76%) of active Coalition
employees have at least one dependent.
Thirty-one percent – or 22,000 – of Union Coalition
members who have dependents are single, with an
average of 1.75 dependents.
39,500 Coalition members are single, and most of them
– 31,000 – are women.
Single women had gross incomes, on average, of under
$54,000 in 2011.
Depending on our incomes
More than three-quarters of us have dependents; a third of us are single
parents, mostly women with relatively lower salaries. The median
income of Coalition Union members is $50,998.
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In Oakland, a parent and one child need at least $43,697 to survive. A parent and
two children need $53,338.
Here in Los Angeles, a parent with two children needs $53,897.
In Orange County, two parents with three children need $91,082.
In Denver, a parent with two children needs $51,583.
In the NW, one parent with two children needs $47,095. Two parents with three
children need $70,461.
In Atlanta, a parent with two children needs $64,817.
In the DC area, a parent with two children needs $69,311. Two parents with two
children need $74,163.
In Cleveland, a parent with three children needs $68,761; two parents with three
children need $74,221.
How are we doing on retirement?
How secure are Coalition Union members in
retirement?
The average lump sum pension payout for a
Coalition retiree is $181,480.*
*2009-2010
How are we doing on retirement?
For Coalition retirees who do take the annuity option, the
average annual annuity payment is $13,777* per year.
• That average annuity works out to about $1,148 a
month.
• A February, 2012 report found that the average Social
Security benefit for a retired person is $1,231 per month.
• That’s a monthly income of $2,379.
*2009-2010
Mary Joyce, RN, Ohio
Mary was widowed at a young age, and she
has carried a big load. She raised four
children, and put them all through college.
“All my children have student loans, and I
have loans to pay off, too – car mortgage,
taxes.”
"We work together and we improve numbers.
I’m so proud of us. My value compass is
around my neck at all times, with the patient or
the member at the center.“
“The reason we have a stable workforce is
because of our wages and benefits.“
With her high seniority, Mary makes about
$70,000. It takes a salary of $ $68,761 for a
single parent to raise three children in
Cleveland – and Mary has raised four.
Brij Prasad, Cook II
Sunnyside Medical Center, SEIU Local 49
With 22 years of service, Brij is the longest-serving
employee in the Sunnyside cafeteria.
He and his wife, a housekeeper at a retirement home,
have raised two children. They put their daughter, now
a teacher, through Warner Pacific College. “I paid a
lot of money for that,” he says proudly. They recently
adopted their grandson, now 8.
“My wife has asthma,” says Brij, “and without KP
she’d probably be dead now.”
“I want to retire. I would have retired at 62, I’m almost
64. We lost a lot of money after 9/11. I have to stick
around for full retirement – a couple more years.”
Brij has worked many years to pay off his bills. “My
wife will retire soon, I try to tell her to get out but she
won’t.” Brij has just one bill remaining to pay off – for
the air conditioning he bought so his wife can be more
comfortable in the summer heat.
Esther Cervantes, Pharmacy Call Center, UFCW
“Customer service – that’s what’s important,” says Esther.
“It is stressful work, but if you are a people person, then it’s
fun.” She makes $23 an hour - $47,849 a year.
Esther has dependents and family to care for: two children
with asthma, one with kidney problems. Her husband is a
landscaper and his work is dependent on the weather.
She’s applied to the union for holiday gift cards. Cost for
two parents and three children to survive: $79,879.
Her extended family has been hit hard. “My sister’s benefits
got cut. My mom and dad lost their jobs at the cannery. My
dad stayed out of work for two years and then retired. He
got into a depression. He didn’t have insurance. It took my
mom three years to find a new job. She is now a home
health aide with no benefits. I know people who don’t go to
the doctor because they don’t have the $20 copay.
Esther feels good that so far she’s been able to “give my
kids a decent life. When you hear about the other stuff, you
feel so sad and appreciate what you really have. And any
time I need support from the union, they are there.”
Machelle Bailey, RN, Riverside, UNAC/AFSCME
Machelle is the union UBT co-lead for Riverside’s internal
medicine department. She helps adult patients manage
chronic illnesses such as diabetes, gives insulin and flu
shots, and delivers patient education.
She’s been with KP for 21 years, is married and has put
three children through college. Her oldest is a 29-year-old
fighter pilot; the middle child is 24 and an aircraft mechanic,
her youngest, a daughter, 21, is a freshman at UCLA
studying pre-med.
Machelle earns $120,000 a year, and received her BSN in
2008 with the help of KP’s tuition reimbursement program.
A breast cancer survivor, she often thinks about what it
would be like if she did not have health insurance and feels
that KP and her union have given her and her family
opportunities that others lack.
“I worry about whether my daughter or my grandchildren
will be able to live the American dream. A lot of people
today don’t have that opportunity.”
Rosa Contreras, EVS, Santa Rosa, SEIU-UHW
Rosa has been an EVS worker at KP for 10
years. She is known by her co-workers as
someone who really interacts well with the
patients and uses “the right words at the
right time.”
Rosa and her husband’s dependents have
included three children. Two of them are in
college, and one is in high school. Of the
two in college, one has found work but the
other has been unable to. The family has
lived in Windsor for 20 years.
Rosa makes about $45,000 a year. She has
a mortgage and makes payments on two
vehicles. She and her husband also support
their daughter as well as the son who can’t
find a job. “I live paycheck to paycheck, and
sometimes have to hold onto bills and pay
them late when I get my next paycheck.”
She hasn’t started thinking about her retirement yet, but
she’s concerned about issues like co-pays for medical visits
or medications because she is “just getting by” right now.
Rodney Trammell, EVS, LA Medical Center, SEIU-UHW
“I’ve always liked the customer care part of it,” Rodney says
about his five years at KP. “We clean operating rooms, the
ER, do floor care. I have the opportunity to go to different
departments and see how different parts of the hospital
work.” He’s on the green committee, using less toxic
chemicals, being more environmental, and saving money.
Rodney makes about $35,360 a year. “Everything is very
expensive,” he says – like his rent which is $1200/month.
He has car payments, though he sometimes takes the
subway because gas is so expensive. Rodney’s wife has
been working at a non-union grocery store for 5 years, and
she only makes $10-$11 an hour. They have a 4-year-old
son, and two older sons who are working. Cost to support
two parents and three children in LA: $82,599.
“The economy keeps going up, but a lot of people aren’t
moving. It is hard out there right now. I have a friend who
works for Macy’s. He can only get three days a week. It
takes him an hour and a half to drive to work. He is
struggling. Down the street, there are two families sharing
one house because they don’t have work.”
Best Place to Work
Kaiser Permanente has been the
best place to work since the 1940s.
Best place to work – and best
compensated workforce – is not an
invention of Partnership. Its always
been the reality of an organization
with a highly unionized workforce.
What the Partnership brought was a
commitment and methodology for
high performance.
But … what does “best place to
work” mean when overall standards
are so dismal?
Our challenge
Much like our nation at large, we possess within our
system vast wealth and resources.
Can we show the country how it is possible to provide
health care for the common good, with the best outcomes
– without increasing the vulnerability of our alreadyvulnerable workforce?
We can, and we must – it is the ONLY way we can
succeed. We can take the high road. There is still time,
and we still possess the resources, to do the right thing.
Our challenge
It boils down to one word –
one moral imperative:
Affordability
Our stark choice
The choice is stark: chop or improve.
“If we permit chopping, I assure you that the chopping
block will get very full – first with cuts to the most
voiceless and poorest of us, but, soon after, to more and
more of us. Fewer health insurance benefits, declining
access, more out-of-pocket burdens, and growing delays.
If we don’t improve, the cynics win.”
- Don Berwick, past administrator,
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Chop or improve?
We know from documented experience that the best
way to create value is through an engaged workforce
and continuous improvement.
Taking the waste, cost, errors, and inefficiencies out
of the system
can only be done
at the front line,
by a respected
and secure
workforce.
Our response
1. Improve quality, service, safety and efficiency while
preserving best place to work
2. Grow KP to protect our model of care, our unions
and our jobs
3. Improve the health of our workforce
4. Improve the health of our communities
How UBTs impact culture
UBTs with higher Path to Performance scores also have higher scores
on the 12 People Pulse items related to performance.
Level 1 and 2
Source: People Pulse 2011 Survey; UBT Tracker
Level 5
Our Value Compass
Our challenge
Will we become cynical and
retreat to traditional behaviors?
Or
Will we step up and face our challenges?
Three historic crises
1945: Kaiser shipyards close,
KP health plan in jeopardy.
Harry Bridges and the unions
step up.
1950s: Charges
that KP practices
“socialized
medicine.”
Unions defend KP
physicians.
1980s - ’90s: Market upheaval,
labor conflict, near collapse of
Kaiser Permanente.
LMP forms to find better
solutions.
We Know How to Do This
ILWU brochure for
worksite health
assessment
program, 1951
Longshoremen lining up for
health assessment
We Know How to Do This!