Yesterday, members of SEIU Healthcare Florida joined senior citizens from the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans to try to speak to a local Humana executive at the West Palm Beach office of the insurance company. As the area seniors rallied to deliver a letter addressed to the local Humana executive and Humana CEO, they were instead greeted by the scampering of little feet, as the fearful insurance company executive hightailed it to his office in the wake of their arrival--practically slamming his office door in their faces.

Although the exec. did finally emerge from his office and take the protesting seniors' letter, he refused to engage in conversation to address their grievances. So much for respecting your elders, much less the real concerns of these seniors' about Medicare Advantage cuts--concerns which stemmed primarily from misinformation sent out by Humana Inc. falsely warning seniors that health insurance reform would cut their health benefits.

Watch the interaction here:

The West Palm Beach seniors were looking to engage the local Humana executive on the healthcare reform misinformation perpetuated by the insurance company with a scare-tactic mailer they sent out weeks before to their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. In Florida, some 900,000 seniors are covered by Medicare Advantage plans, which offer services like dental and vision coverage that traditional Medicare does not.

As Congress returns from recess and gets back to work to pass legislation to bring access to quality, affordable healthcare to everyone, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is wasting no time working hard to hang onto the same reckless business practices that got us in this hot financial mess in the first place. The Chamber is launching a new $2 million ad campaign attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. From the Wall Street Journal:

The Chamber's goal is twofold: move the spotlight off the unpopular commercial banks and mortgage lenders that are the target of the legislation and muster a roster of more sympathetic opponents.

[...] The business lobby intends to expand its campaign to include nationwide TV and radio ads later this month. Its lobbying push could feature other small-business owners, such as accountants, landlords and event planners.

The Chamber's first ad--running in Washington-area newspapers--could actually almost be a warning ad for what could happen if we don't find a way to increase real consumer protections to Americans and businesses alike. The print ad, which will run first in Washington-area newspapers, has a picture of a butcher with the line: "Virtually every business that extends credit to American consumers would be affected -- even the local butcher and the credit he extends to his customers."

The Chamber's claim that they are opposing this legislation primarily out of concern for the interests of small businesses is not very convincing. Our first clue? They admit that the whole point of the ads is to draw attention away from the banks and mortgage lenders and the dangerous and deceptive products and practices they've been driving, at which the CFPA legislation takes aim. But even a quick examination of their legislative record shows them opposing bill after bill that may help small businesses--and consistently siding with big corporations. Resorting to these kinds of right-wing scare tactics is nothing new for the Chamber; their history of using misinformation to bolster campaigns against pro-worker policies speaks for itself.

Kirstin Brost, a spokeswoman for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, said the business community is wasting money with this anti-worker campaign attacking the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. "The public doesn't believe that there was too much consumer protection," said Brost.

Experience has taught us that allowing financial firms to abuse consumers is bad for our overall financial system health...and that's putting it lightly. This abuse has lead directly to the current crisis that resulted the loss of millions in jobs and in millions of Americans losing their homes, their jobs, and their retirement savings. Not to mention a pervasive mistrust by consumers in our country's financial systems. The current regulatory framework simply doesn't provide adequate protection to consumers--and we need to put a stop to the new, risky financial products that banks continue to push out, even now.

The truth is now that the Chamber and big banks and corporations they represent are once again flush with cash (mostly thanks to taxpayer bailouts), they're back to doing everything they can to continue the egregious, reckless business practices in the consumer lending market that allowed them to make money then move on.The Chamber of Commerce should represent the interests of American business -- not just the interests of a few of its big donors. Don't let the U.S. Chamber set the agenda on financial reform.

Update: Read SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger's piece looking at the role the Chamber of Commerce has played in the financial breakdown, posted on the SEIU Blog & Huffington Post.

Security guards marched to Miami Beach City Hall on Friday in a staged protest against Security Alliance ~ Photo © 2009 Carlos Miller, NBC Miami

In January, about seventy-five percent of the Security Alliance guards signed cards to form a union with SEIU--but since that time, he and the 50 or so security guards employed by Security Alliance of Florida in the Miami Beach area had been experiencing intimidation, scare tactics and harassment at the hands of their employer for exercising their rights to organize. Ruiz was the only one out of his coworkers who was willing to speak about their efforts to form a union on the record.

His reward for having the courage to speak out for what he believes in? Losing his job. "We are trying to make this city safer for everybody, but I was fired when they found out I was speaking out and wanted a union," said Richard Ruiz, who was terminated after working for more than two years for Security Alliance. "Employers shouldn't stop decent people from trying to have a better life."

What a month.

We went into August excited to discuss health care reform at town halls across the country. Instead, we got a reminder that our opponents will say or do almost anything to shut down legitimate debate on this issue.

But, their scare tactics didn't work. In fact, they only energized us. And now, at hundreds of town halls across the country, supporters of health reform are outnumbering opponents by large margins; and we're helping to lead honest, civil conversations with members of Congress.

In just a few days, members of Congress will be headed back to Washington. Will you help send them off with one final, strong message? Tell Congress that fixing health care comes first: http://action.seiu.org/sendthemback

The teabag protesters make a lot of noise - but they don't speak for the majority of Americans. And they certainly don't speak for the 47 million Americans who can't afford health care; or the millions more who are one paycheck away from losing it.

Fixing health care is too important to let those Americans get lost in all this back-and-forth. Help us send congress back to Washington with a clear directive on health care reform. Join us at send-off rallies across the country: http://action.seiu.org/sendthemback

We proved in 2008 that when passionate, thoughtful people come together for something we believe in, we can do anything. That momentum from 2008 is back. You can feel it in communities across America. People are ready for change when it comes to health care.

Let's not waste the momentum. Let's keep the energy growing. And let's remind Congress why we sent them to Washington in the first place - to fix our broken health care system and create an America that works for everyone: http://action.seiu.org/sendthemback

The Economic Policy Institute posted yesterday a recent study that shows literally no coercion in majority sign-up. You can read the meat of the survey here, but the graph says it all.

That's 1,073 majority sign-up campaigns with 5 complaints, 0 of which were found to have any merit.

So when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tries its scare tactics, remember: it's corporations that coerce and intimidate workers who want to join unions. Anything else is just simply not true.

There's been a lot of info flying around about health care reform from a lot of different sources. It's gotten so ridiculous, some people are even claiming that the President wants to create 'death panels' that would decide whether sick or elderly Americans live or die.

Here's the truth about death panels: they're completely made-up.

It's actually one of many scare tactics that opponents of health reform are using to confuse the majority of Americans standing behind President Obama's plan.

Rumors and scare tactics are powerful things - but not as powerful as the truth. Click here for some quick facts about health reform:

http://action.seiu.org/healthfacts

When it comes to something as personal and important as health care, we've got to be extra careful that we get the facts right before we make up our minds. Click here to get straight facts on the President's plan to fix health care.