Archive for March, 2011

Are events in Wisconsin part of a union busting initiative?

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Later this month, we will mark the 100 year anniversary of New York’s horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, an event that claimed the lives of 146 garment workers – young girls and women – who had been locked in the sweatshop to prevent theft. Most died in stairwells, jumping down the single elevator shaft, or by hurtling themselves from 9th story windows in desperate attempts to escape the fire. PBS recently ran a special on this disaster. (If you missed it, you can watch online: Triangle Fire). My colleague Jon Coppelman has also written about the fire in his post The Original “No Exit”.
This fire was a watershed event that galvanized the nation. It occurred in an era where there were no regulations or labor protections. Workers often worked 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week. There were no child labor laws or safety mandates. Ironically, the day before the Triangle Fire, New York courts had struck down the state’s first compulsory workers compensation law as unconstitutional.
This tragedy, along with some of the horrific mine disasters that resulted in wholesale loss of life, were catalysts which led to the enactment of various worker protections – including statutory workers’ compensation.
Meanwhile, today in Wisconsin …
We think this bit of history is an important backdrop to what’s going on in Wisconsin today.
Wisconsin has the distinction of being the first state in the union to have enacted a workers’ compensation law that survived legal challenge in May of 1911. In fact, the state of Wisconsin has a long, storied and sometimes bloody history of being on the front lines for worker rights. Workers and labor unions were in the forefront of the fight for the 8-hour day and the 40-hour work week. In 1932, Wisconsin was the first state to enact unemployment compensation.
To any who know this history, it comes as no surprise that, once again, Wisconsin is on the front lines in the battle for labor’s future.
It’s the budget, stupid – or is it?
The ostensible issue, according to Governor Walker, is that the state of Wisconsin is broke and a large part of the problem lies with overly generous benefit packages of public workers – teachers, prison guards and the like – which are said to be crippling the state. He called on unions to do their part and to make a sacrifice for the greater good.
All that might be well and good. The unions have indicated their willingness to take a financial haircut. But the part of Governor Walker’s Budget Repair Bill that is going over somewhat less well is a call for the elimination of collective bargaining — and therein lies the rub.
With a Republican majority in Wisconsin’s House and Senate, the bill was all but a given until the Democratic senate contingent fled the state to prevent a vote. Since that time, there have been massive protests over three weeks and the so-called Fab 14 remain holed up in un-named Illinois’ hotels. And there has been no shortage of drama in this story: an embarrassing and revelatory 20-minute prank call to Governor Walker from an impersonator of corporate financier David Koch; and a sheriff’s refusal to play the role of “palace guard”, among other things.
Part of national union busting agenda?
Critics of Walker’s Budget Repair Bill say that the issue is not about budget balancing or overly generous benefits, but an ideological push to eliminate or curtail public unions – in a phrase, union busting. Opponents say that this is a corporate-funded campaign to eliminate public unions in Wisconsin and other states, and to privatize many institutions that are currently staffed by public workers. No less a staunch Republican than former Congressman and now host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Joe Scarborough, has publicly called Governor Walker’s actions, “Un-American.”
In Wisconsin, suspicions are high because Koch enterprises funded a large part of Walkers gubernatorial campaign. The fact that the budget bill contains a provision authorizing Walker to conduct no-bid sales of some state properties also heightens suspicion. Many are troubled by his plans for privatization of some public services. In his prior role as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker also used budget emergency as a justification for privatizing security guards, a move that proved less than successful.
Other states have also embarked on this path: Ohio may be making more headway in curtailing unions. In Indiana, Democratic legislators have followed Wisconsin’s lead and left the state to postpone a vote. In Rhode Island, nearly 2000 teachers have been dismissed. Other states may be contemplating similar measures, although some may be a bit shy of action given the shifting public sentiment, which favors retention of collective bargaining and has given Walker a black eye – to a point where voters say they would not elect him again if they had a do-over. (see Wisconsin Public Research, Rasmussen, USA Today/Gallup, Public Policy Polling and various other polls. )
It’s uncertain what will happen in the next chapters, but we will be watching. It is clear this is another watershed point in labor history, a public policy fork in the road, perhaps the beginning of the end of the movement that was propelled into mainstream America by that terrible fire 100 years ago. While polling indicates that sentiment is currently on the side of the teachers in this dispute, the future of public unions is under serious threat. Is the role of unions obsolete? Has the public dialogue achieved an equilibrium between the rights of workers and those of management?
At Lynch Ryan, we have great respect for unions, which have historically played a critical check-and-balance role in labor-management power dynamics. They have also been in the forefront of the fight for worker safety and other worker protections. We also admire and respect many employers we have been privileged to work for who are perceptive and wise enough to manage their companies so well that unions are not needed. We’d like to say that all employers are this enlightened and do not need union checks and balances to do the right thing, but unfortunately our experience tells us that this is not always the case.

Health Wonk Review, CTE, bill review, messing with Texas, and more

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Jared Rhoads of The Lucidicus Project hosts this week’s Health Wonk Review, and he dishes up a heaping helping of the blogosphere’s best heath policy posts from the last two weeks. Check it out!
Happy Birthday – to David Williams at Health Business Blog for 6 years of quality healthcare blogging. David is one f the regular Health Wonkers. See his Best of the Blog post for a fine sampling of his work.
More sports-related head trauma tragedy – Earlier this week, my colleague posted about football-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Yesterday, the New York Times featured a story about how hockey brawler Bob Probert also suffered from CTE: “But the legacy of [Bob] Probert, who died last July of heart failure at 45, could soon be rooted as much in his head as his hands.After examining Probert’s brain tissue, researchers at Boston University said this week that they found the same degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, whose presence in more than 20 deceased professional football players has prompted the National Football League to change some rules and policies in an effort to limit dangerous head impacts.”
Bill review – Are you getting what you pay for with medical bill review? At Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda takes some of the mystery out of the equation in his discussion about what your savings should be from your work comp medical bill review program.
Criminal indictment for Massey mine official – Hughie Elbert Stover, the chief of security for Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine has been charged with two felonies related to the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 coal miners. He is accused of lying to investigators and destroying records. On his blog, reporter Ken Ward asks if this is just the beginning of indictments.
Don’t mess with Texas – If you ever use the words “workers compensation” and “Texas” in the same sentence, you better think twice. TX law blogger John Gibson has been issued a “cease and desist” order and threatened with further legal action for his TX Workers Comp Law Blog for having the temerity to use the words “workers compensation” and “Texas” in his blog. We can’t get Gibson’s take because his blog appears to be down (www.texasworkerscomplaw.com), but Julius Young posts the scoop on the Texas workers comp language imbroglio at his Oakland Workers Comp Blog. If you don’t see his post – or ours – please blame Texas. Just to be on the safe side, from here on out we may begin referring to Texas as “Exas-Tay.”
Sedgwick acquires SRS – In a major move in the world of third party administrators, Sedgwick completed the purchased of Specialty Risk Services for $278 million. SRS was the claims TPA arm of The Hartford. In his bog on the Hartford Courant, Matthew Sturdevant reports that: “The deal makes Sedgwick CMS the largest independent North American provider of claims administration services. The combined companies will have annualized revenue of about $1 billion as well as almost 8,500 employees.”
Devil’s in the details – Yvonne Guilbert of Complex Care Blog posts two concrete incidents that show how one small detail missed in home care could easily end up costing $50,000 or more.
Safe hiring practices – As the economy ramps up, new hires will increase an employer’s potential for workplace injuries. At MEMIC Safety Blog, Greg LaRochelle says that a new employee is 5x more likely to have a lost-time injury than a more experienced worker, and that 40% of all workers injured on the job have been on the job for less than a year. He posts about hiring practices to help mitigate risk.
Hiring VetsHR Daily Advisor offers a good roundup of tips and advice for hiring returning veterans. The post includes questions to ask and to avoid during the interview.
Short Takes
AIG results and workers comp
Four steps to evaluate absence policies
Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame 2010
Smiling makes the world go round
7 wellness benefits employees want most

A Bullet to the Heart

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Dave Duerson was a star safety in the NFL. He used his head in the way that aggressive defensive backs often do – as a battering ram to bring an opponent down, maybe even jar the ball loose. He was articulate, generous and in his post-football life, successful. So it saddened many of his friends and colleagues to learn that he had committed suicide last month. But even in this last, desperate act there was a method to the madness: he shot himself in the chest, so that his brain would be left intact. He was convinced that the downward spiral of his life over the past few years was due to football-related brain damage – chronic traumatic encephalopathy. He texted his ex-wife just before he shot himself, requesting that his brain be given to the NFL brain bank. Just in case she did not get the message, he left a written note with the same instructions.
We have blogged the issue of concussions in the NFL and their potential for long-term brain damage. As this prior blog pointed out, a changing of the NFL’s medical guard indicates that the league finally appears willing to confront the issue head on (so to speak). They no longer systematically deny a connection between concussions on the field and severe cognitive problems after football careers come to an end.
Over the past few years, Duerson was in a downward spiral. He lost his business to bankruptcy. He (uncharacteristically) assaulted his wife, who soon felt compelled to end their marriage. While his friends did not see major changes in his behavior, he talked openly of his fears of dementia. He suffered short-term memory loss, blurred vision and pain on the left side of his brain. He looked into the future and despaired at what he saw coming. At the time of his death, Duerson was only 50.
Suicide as Political Act
Duerson’s last gesture was an explicitly political act. He was convinced that his life problems – and the rapidly diminishing quality of that life – were directly connected to his years as a football player. So he not only decided to end his life, he made sure that suicide would leave his brain intact for research. The NFL has been (belatedly) collecting the brains of deceased players willing to donate them, to try and determine the impact of repeated violent collisions on aging. At this point, there is not much doubt of the causal connection – not in every individual who played the game, but surely in a significant percentage who suffered from multiple concussions.
With this connection medically proven, the burden falls on the NFL to improve player safety. That will not be easy. This past season, a number of players – most notably the Steelers linebacker James Harrison– complained about the newly implemented fines for helmut to helmut hits, defined as:

“using any part of a players helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/hairline parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily; although such violent or unnecessary use of the helmet is impermissible against any opponent, game officials will give special attention in administering this rule to protect those players who are in virtually defenseless postures…”

Duerson the player would have agreed with Harrison about the rule. Duerson the retiree would have supported it. Experience is an exacting and often cruel teacher. As Duerson’s sad demise demonstrates, what we choose to ignore in the prime of life may give birth to demons that haunt us as we age.