by the El Reportero’s staff
Members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), filed two ballot initiatives with Attorney General Kamala Harri’s Nov. 23, looking to give consumers transparency on hospital costs, ensure increased charity and end overcharging in services.
SEIU-UHW represents 150,000 healthcare workers from the Bay Area to Sacramento and Los Angeles to the Central Valley. Their initiative will appear on the general election ballot in Nov. 2012.
Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, explained one of the reasons for the introduction of such voter initiative package is three quarters of the hospital industry pays no taxes. “Companies that operate tax-free should not be permitted to overcharge consumers, they should be required to meet their charitable duty by providing a reasonable level of services for prevention, treatment and wellness to those in need” Regan said.
The ballot would bring $1.7 billion to the state economy, looking to relieve Californians from the exceeding 20 percent of cost payed for health insurance every year.
New regulations for Mexican workers in the U.S.
The Consul General of Mexico in San Francisco, Carlos Felix, and the Director of the U.S. Department of Labor-Wage and Hour Division, Susana Rincon, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding regarding working policies applicable to all Mexican workers in the United States.
The agreement, signed Nov. 17, looks to empower immigrants by institutionalizing a collaborative relationship that will provide information, guidance, and access to education and training resources, to help workers regardless of their immigration status.
“Today, we have deepened the ways for empowering our immigrant population to defend their rights to a safe workplace, to compensation for injuries, to minimum wage and overtime, to nondiscrimination and the right to collective actions” said Consul General Carlos Felix.
