I have been a long time reader of DailyKos, and have dabbled in diary writing recently. I have always been impressed with the quality of the community and have resisted posting this letter for fear that it will be interpreted as some sort of advertisement for my organization. I assure you that this is not that case; I am calling on you for help because I believe there is a crisis going on in our country right now and I believe that, with your participation and assistance, we can work together to solve it. This is a long diary, but I felt it necessary to speak about the History, Vision and Struggles of AAESEP before calling on you to help. I am a new diarist and ask for patience and forgiveness and advice if I am not doing this properly. Please read on and I look forward to working with those of you interested in our mission.
Our History
In 1983 Roger Madon, a labor attorney in New York, started an organization called the National Congress of Employees (which has now been renamed AAESEP, the American Association of Employees and Self-Employed Persons). The organization was formed based on the changes Roger saw in the workplace. As a labor attorney for more then 30 years he saw the percentage of unionized workers in the workplace fall from over 26% of the workforce to less then 14% (most of this group works for the government only about 6% of the private workforce is now unionized). He noticed that several factors were pushing unions out. There was more sophisticated anti-union opposition by employers, there was inaction and refusal to change from the unions themselves, but most of all there were changes in the economic reality of the United States.
Roger noticed the shift from a production economy to a service and idea economy, which led to the decentralization of the workforce, outsourcing and a change in the basic employment relationship between worker and employer. All of these factors created the "perfect storm" for American unions. AAESEP (formerly the National Congress of Employees), was created as a response to the increasingly bleak reality that decreased union participation created for American workers.
By 2003, when I became involved in the organization, the group was a small collection of approximately 200 members who received a newsletter every now and again, were interested in employee rights, but the group lacked an urgency of purpose. I, having just graduated from law school, had just gone through 3 years without health insurance and was struggling to find a job in a very tough New York legal marketplace in that particular year. I was working as a freelancer, doing research and writing projects for various attorneys, working part time at Teamsters Local 237 Legal Services and studying for my bar exam when I walked into Roger Madon's office.
Roger was facing the untimely demise of his partner in the law firm of Roger H. Madon and Associates, P.C., and was seeking the help of an associate to take over the ERISA litigation at the firm. The firm primarily worked for Unions and Union Pension and Welfare Plans. This was my kind of work and I was excited about the prospect of employment with the firm, despite the sad circumstances surrounding Roger's need for an associate.
As I started to get more familiar with Roger we began to discuss subjects unrelated to our daily work. As our discussions moved towards politics I made a shocking discovery, this guy was a CONSERVATIVE! I had, throughout my college and law school career, been a dedicated Democrat, I wrote for a blog called mrleft.com (which, if anyone were to see my writings during this period might call me a tinfoil liberal without pause), I worked on get out the vote efforts, worked for Unions and was a board member of the Fordham Death Penalty Project. To be confronting the reality that my new boss, at a Union side labor law firm, was a conservative made my head spin.
In the run up to the 2004 election (which as you all know started for us liberals somewhere in December of 2000), Roger and I had heated discussions on all sorts of political topics. Roger never made me feel like I had to agree with him, nor did he discredit my opinions or ideals, we just plain disagreed on many of the important issues that faced the nation at that time (and still do). One place where we found agreement was always in the area of employee rights and the importance of creating a strong, educated, workforce for the future of America. In the coming months I came to understand that Roger was a patriot, he loved our country, he just had some different ideas about how to make America better then I did. I think, or I hope, he saw the same in me.
On one rainy fall day in 2003 Roger came in my office and tossed a business plan on my desk. He said "this is an organization I started in the 80's, take a look at the business plan and let me know if you are interested in working on it". I sat down and read the plan and was immediately fully committed to the project. The idea was that AAESEP would be AARP for working Americans, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to creating positive change for members through portable benefits (health insurance, retirement accounts), information (related to employee rights and career planning), advocacy and service to our members.
Having been involved in the world of blogging, seeing first hand the incredible success of Howard Dean's online fundraising efforts, and participating in DailyKos, I was fully aware of the potential of the Internet to bring this organization together and to make this amazing mission a reality. I took the vision Roger had and brought the idea into the Internet age. I worked with Convio, the same company that powered Howard Dean's fundraising success, to create our website (www.aaesep.org). Roger and I had agreed that we must start small, so we focused on the New York market. We found a partner in a progressive health insurance carrier called Atlantis Health Plans who was willing to give us a group rate for a group still in development. We have called on business leaders throughout the country, wrote letters to members of Congress, and worked like dogs, investing countless hours and our own money, to create an amazing product and service line for our membership. Currently AAESEP group rate health insurance plans offer our members savings of up to $400 per month over similar plans on the market for individuals. We are days away from launching our nationwide 401(k) plan for members, and today we are ready to move beyond New York and expand to the rest of the country.
Our Vision
Our goal is for AAESEP to represent millions of workers across the country. We want our members to have access to quality benefits and services in the following areas:
1) Health Insurance: We want to allow our self-employed and employed members to have lifetime insurance benefits unrelated to their present employment status. While members work with large employers who still make contributions to their employees' health insurance, we will process employer contributions. Where our members have periods of unemployment, are self-employed or freelance, or where they work for employers that don't offer such benefits, they will have access to affordable care. AAESEP plans will be affordable because as we grow, so does our pool of risk. Large risks pools are the key to lower cost. As AAESEP grows worries about preexisting conditions and COBRA will disappear, we will work to find every American employee a policy that assures access to quality care and is affordable. Where members struggle with health insurance costs we will partner with State and Federal Government and health access related Foundations to get them the care they deserve.
2) Retirement Planning: AAESEP will soon provide each of our members with access to a 401(k) plan that will stay with them throughout their working lives. By working with industry leaders to manage retirement funds, accept employers contributions where applicable and assist workers in planning for retirement AAESEP can help our generation to retire without risk or worry.
3) Employee Rights: AAESEP provides access to easy to use legal resources for employees to learn about their legal relationship with their employers. We provide self-help guides for employees struggling with workplace discrimination or sexual harassment, and will lobby for continued high standards for workplace safety. We are also working to create an AAESEP discount for legal services related to employment.
4) Career Planning: We are currently working out the details of a partnership with several companies to allow our members to create winning resumes, post them online and apply to jobs from several leading job boards from their AAESEP profile page on our website. We also hope to offer online education to our members, assisting them in getting the skills they need to thrive in a changing economy.
Our goal is to provide a national voice for the nation's workers. Our constitution is structured, unlike AARP, to allow the creation of Local and State chapters and have elections for our national offices. Roger and I could very well be voted out of our positions, and that is the point. To assure our members are properly represented we have built in the democratic values the organization is designed to protect.
Our Struggles
Putting together these programs and services has been an uphill battle. Roger and I have been told "no" so often that for a period I forgot what the word yes sounded like. Insurance companies, happy making record profits, tell us we are misguided do-gooders and are unwilling to offer group rates when they make a fortune on selling individual policies. Foundations have told us that our idea is too big to fund, banks have told us they are unwilling to provide financial assistance to a non-profit organization. What I realized is that this idea is so big, that the for-profit companies were actually frightened of its potential. Upon this realization I decided to never give up on the plan.
Currently we have several options open to us. 1) Self-Insurer under the Captive Insurance Laws of the State of Nevada or some other State, 2) continue to press the existing Insurance Carriers to develop group rates for emerging AAESEP risk pools in all 50 states, 3) give up, pack it in and just have a small group in New York. I want to explore our first and second options and I call on you to help.
Our Call for Help from Kossacks
As we pressure health insurance carriers to develop group rates for AAESEP members, we need to develop a list of "interested" individuals from a variety of States. Unfortunately we do not have the funding to launch a national advertising and marketing strategy to put this list together. I know that there are many of you who write about health insurance struggles, and I know that the tone of your discussions generally leads to a conclusion that universal health care is the only solution to the pressing problems that are facing Americans in finding access to affordable quality care. I am not asking that you change your mind, but instead that we work together now, to create real programs and solutions in the current political reality that we are facing, to create change and get more people the care they deserve.
I ask you to log into our website and join our group as an e-member (it's free). Once we get 100 people from each state registered as e-members, I will have a compelling argument for a nationwide group rate to present to national insurers. I want to involve all of you not only in assisting to get the group rate, but to design a benefit that is affordable, assures quality care and a plan that is easy to use and to understand. I propose a partnership between the dailykos community and AAESEP to work diligently to solve this pressing issue.
I also want to know what other programs and services you would like to see designed for working Americans. I have heard suggestions about online education and training. Are these programs that you feel would work? What types of educational opportunities do you believe are most valuable? We want your ideas, we want your participation, and we need your help. I ask you to participate in the creation of an important new pillar of American life, a non-profit organization dedicated to fairness and equity in the workplace, a constant source of quality health insurance and retirement benefits for working Americans and a key ally for employees in a time of radical change. Please take a minute to consider this opportunity and contact me if you have specific questions or concerns.
Warm Regards,
Tyler D. Malin, Esq.
Executive Director
AAESEP
Tyler.malin@aaesep.org
www.aaesep.org