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The Great Louisiana Car & Home Insurance Swindle

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER OWNED BY THE COMPANIES
NEW STATE TASK FORCE WON’T SOLVE PROBLEM

By Gavrielle Gemma

Once again car insurance rates went up this year, just like every year before. Some hugely profitable companies got rates hike of 15%. Orleans Parish and Baton Rouge drivers are charged 25% more than surrounding areas. Louisiana homeowners pay 143% higher rates that other states Despite low wages, Louisiana has the second highest car and homeowners insurance rates in the whole country.

Why is this? Because the Commissioner of Insurance, Jim Donelon, like those before him are owned lock stock and barrel by the industry. The Commissioner of insurance is elected every 4 years, but it is hardly democratic. The Insurance industry turned over a million dollars to Donelon. As one opposing candidate Donald Hodge put it : “Louisiana doesn’t actually have an Insurance Commissioner. The insurance companies have an Insurance Commissioner,” This shows once again we don’t have a real democracy, we have a capitalist state that functions to shovel profits to big business at the expense of the workers.

HOW MUCH MORE CAN WE TAKE?
A whopping 18% of our family budget pays for insurance, sometimes more. But in a crisis, it doesn’t even cover our losses. Donelon complains the high cost is because so many drivers lack comprehensive coverage. You need a car for work, but you only make $7.25 or even $11 an hour. We can’t afford even basic liability. A ticket for no insurance and your life can spin out of control fast. Insurance has become a tax imposed by the government to subsidize the insurance industry, which makes record profits.

Louisiana has given exemptions to corporations that have totaled $11 billion in 10 years. These taxes should be collected, and we can set up a people’s insurance fund, with a board of residents to oversee it, all prohibited from payoffs from the companies. This board could insure drivers and homeowners in the event of any catastrophe, accident, fire or flood.

THIS IS CORRUPTION
If the Insurance Commissioner got a free driveway from a company, it is corruption. But in the eyes of the law, if he takes a million dollars in campaign contributions, it’s legal. In actuality, campaign contributions are bribes, and you are guaranteed a cushy job in the industry if you leave the post. Prior to being the Commissioner, Donelon was on the legislatures Insurance Committee, also the recipient of campaign contributions (bribes) to pass favorable laws for them and against the people.

While the rich members of the state legislature have allowed and aided in this corruption they finally had to admit it’s out of control. Their answer is to set up the Louisiana High Auto Rates Task Force. But who is on it? Legislators, insurance companies, lawyers and corporations. They were appointed by guess who? Jim Donelon, the puppet of the insurance industry.

Once again it is clear that independent working class organizing is necessary on this critical hardship. We should be wary, not hopeful, of this Taskforce, which may try to enact measures forcing drivers to buy more insurance or impose more fines.

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Grassroots Organizing Does the Trick – Missouri Workers Win Big

If your only source of news is CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or other corporate-owned (and corporate-oriented) media outlets, you would not know much about the organized peoples’ struggles in this country, and around the world, that are, in some cases, making real advances. The recent union victory in Missouri is a case in point. Workers have achieved something really remarkable, with long-range implications.

The labor movement in Missouri galvanized voters to strike down anti-union, and anti-worker “right to work” legislation in an August 7th referendum. The legislation was defeated with a 2-1 margin. 100 out of 114 counties voted it down, with St. Louis voting 88 percent “no.”

“Right to work” is a policy that is designed to take away workers’ rights. By making union membership optional in unionized workplaces, the power of the union is weakened, tilting the scale in favor of big corporations.

The strength or weakness of unions affects all workers, not just union members. This is born out by the fact that – in “right to work” states like Louisiana and Mississippi – workers have lower average wages, more workers uninsured, and higher rates of on-thejob injuries and deaths. In other words, overall conditions for workers are lowered for workers, and poverty is exacerbated, in states with these anti-union laws.

What is, perhaps, most remarkable, is the ways that the unions went about organizing. Over the course of six months, the unions sent out over 1,000 volunteers (mostly rank and file union members) across the state to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to call a referendum. They actually collected over 300,000.

Almost anyone active in movements today understands the need for having a digital media presence. But these recent union campaigns show that meeting people face to face is still one of the most effective ways to organize. Union volunteers knocked on 770,000 doors (think about that for a moment!) and went wherever workers were gathered.

As Labor Notes reported (labornotes.org), “Robert W. Shuler II, a forge operator and president of IUE-CWA Local 86821 in Centralia, recruited 35 members to go to poker runs, the state fair, bike runs, and festivals all summer.”

Shuler says that these efforts have fundamentally changed his union local for the better. “We have more attendance at meetings. People are asking about stuff to do. Something like this gives people hope.”