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No Issue ‘Touches Us More Than Health Care’ |
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Last week, Russell Hess, president of the Southeast Central Labor Council (SECLC), gathered the 21 local unions that make up the Rochester (Minn.)-based labor body to talk about health care reform, the 208 elections and the drive to put the county back on the right track and Turn Around America.
Hess found that all the union activists who attended faced difficult negotiations over health care—and all of them knew it’s not going to get any easier. Health care costs are soaring—rising three times faster than wages—while workers are paying more and insurance companies less. More and more, friends and relatives are losing coverage and going without needed care. Says Hess:
Of all the examples we could use to show America is heading in the wrong direction, none touches more of us than health care.
That message was repeated at some 50 central labor council meetings last week, bringing to 100 the number of labor councils that so far this month have dedicated their meetings to helping local unions mobilize their members around health care reform for the coming elections.
As part of the union movement’s Labor 2008 drive to Turn Around America, all labor councils in Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Dakota are focusing on health care reform and political action, as are more than 300 other councils around the country.
The first two goals of the April initiative are for each local union to take the health care message—based on the results of the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey—to members and to sign on to play an active role in Labor 2008. Hundreds of unions have committed, including to taking part in first large-scale Labor 2008 action.
As part of that May 17 action, union members in more than 100 neighborhood walks will go door to door to talk about Republican presidential canddiate John McCain’s flawed health care proposals. .
In a letter to state and local labor leaders, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney writes that because:
health care will be a hot issue in the 2008 elections, we have to help candidates who support real reform become active champions for health care. And we have to expose and hold accountable candidates at all levels who oppose real reform and propose false solutions.
Hess told the Minnesota local leaders that union family voters need to ask each of the candidates, “Which side are you on?” when it comes to health care reform. As Hess said:
Are you going let the insurance companies keep sticking it to everybody who works for a living? John McCain says, “Yes.”
Are you going to begin to tax our union health care benefits and begin calling it fair? John McCain says, “Yes.”
Are you going recycle George Bush’s idea that tax credits are health coverage, John McCain says, “Yes.”
For more on the AFL-CIO’s drive for health care reform, click here. Click here to become a health care activist. Also click here for information on the AFL-CIO’s Turn Around America Video Competition.
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Universal Health Care
A poem by David G. Hurlburt 2007
Health care is our basic human right.
Now is the time to stand up and fight.
Put our money and our vote up on the line.
Get up on our feet and walk a picket line.
Dial a phone or write a letter,
Do it so every one will feel better.
Why should only rich have medical care?
And the poor kids die but Bush doesn’t care?
Get out of your chair and in to the street.
It is time for us all to vote with our feet.
Show and tell politicians, turn up the heat.
If we all fight together we can not be beat.
The Iraqis get universal health care,
The rules of war require that its there.
Prisoners in Git-mo get medical care.
But not all Americans that’s just not fair?
What about the hard working poor?
They need medical care for sure?
The system is broken it profits the greedy.
Let us fix the system to serve the needy.
Bush and Cheney are the real Sicko’s,
Impeachment is needed don’t you know.
Denial of health care to all is a high crime,
Remove them from office it is way past time.
While we are at it Health care for profit must go.
Single payer health care for all is the way to go.
Overhead and profit is just another poison pill.
We have had enough we have taken our fill.
Skyrocketing premiums, deductibles and co-pay,
Caused by advertising, profit and big CEO pay.
It must be stopped now and here is the fix.
There is a bill in the congress HR six seven six.
HR 676 has been endorsed by 397 union organizations in 48 states
including 100 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 33 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO, MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA & AK).
Just a quick update on Labor’s interest and endorsement on HR 676. Labor should be talking to the candidates that single payer is the solution. It will be a historic election, either a woman or an African-American will win. This should also be the birth of single payer health care.
Those 397 union organizations need to get people out there at every political event asking Clinton, Obama and McCain about their views on HR676. This will get it to their attention, i.e. “the squeaky wheel” This is a great bill, but it will quietly disappear like many other good bills have if the wheel doesn’t start squeakin’ soon!
Organized labor; AFL-CIO, Change To Win and other independents should all be behind 676!
The injustice in healthcare grows by the day and the time is LONG OVERDUE for real reform!
While I personally like the bill, the fact is that there are not enough votes in either the House or Senate to pass it and override the veto. What we need to do is put all our efforts into the coming election and elect candidates serious about making fundamental changes to our “system”.
I have to say, this is about the only piece of legislation ever that I remember the bill number and use it!
We don’t need a health care change, we need a health care overhaul! HR676 is a step in the right direction—but it is only a step. As long as there are people making buckets of money in the health care industry, that money will continue to buy influence and keep the costs spiraling upward.
Working families will continue to sacrifice wage improvements, pensions, and other benefits to keep their health care afloat—no matter how many additional cuts in coverage and co-pay raises come in the meanwhile.
Those who fall into the coverage gap—retirees who have earned a pension but are too young for Medicare—will no doubt be a sticking point in everyone’s negotiations. Companies have no love for the non-producing worker, no matter what their former contribution was or the assurances given to them. There is no value to a life of dedicated work these days. We have to be a voice for them; a voice for our own futures.