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Seniors Honor Kourpias, Set to Carry on Fight for Health Care |
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Even though his title may have changed, George Kourpias is still as active as ever in the fight for the rights of America’s workers. Kourpias, who retired as president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February, was honored last night at the organization’s national legislative conference.
Kourpias, the former president of the Machinists (IAM), was the first president of the Alliance. During his tenure, the Alliance grew to 3.5 million members and built a strong grassroots political force that played a key role in the 2006 and 2008 elections. This week, the retirees displayed their political energy by lobbying on Capitol Hill for affordable health care for everyone.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka praised Kourpias as
a man who every day of his life…has been devoted to combating the forces of greed and privatization that threaten the dignity of those who work for their daily bread.
Believe me, anybody who has ever confronted him on an issue of principle—whether corporate executive, congressman or senator—has come away knowing that George Kourpias is a man of towering convictions.
R. Thomas Buffenbarger, who succeeded Kourpias as IAM president, said:
George Kourpias brought to the Alliance for Retired Americans the same passion of fighting for working families that he had as president of the Machinists union. His dedication and untiring efforts to mobilize retirees have put the Alliance in a strong position to help win meaningful health care reform, protect pensions and make sure our nation’s workers aren’t shortchanged after a lifetime of work.
The Alliance is naming its state grant program after Kourpias and today named him as Alliance for Retired Americans president emeritus.
Trumka congratulated the Alliance members for the “incredible work you’ve done to change the Congress in 2006, and your encore performance in 2008, that’s given us a president who doesn’t think ‘union’ is a dirty word.”
There’s the unique role you played in securing President Obama’s election by convincing others in your generation to look beyond the habits of prejudice to the promise of a society that offers opportunity to all—no matter the color of their skin or homeland of their origin.
While Obama lost the senior vote overall, union seniors voted for him in higher percentages than any other group.
Kourpias, who received the Alliance’s President Award, added:
The Alliance is so important to the labor movement and to community-based groups in America and we have to go out and continue to build and organize clubs and always be there to protect our Social Security and our Medicare and help the labor movement in these difficult economic times.
Even though retirees and the Alliance have won many battles, including defeating the Bush administration’s plan to privatize Social Security, Trumka warned that the toughest fights are ahead:
restoring full employment and building a new clean energy economy, passing the Employee Free Choice Act and ensuring health care reform to stop the explosive rise in costs driven by runaway profits and skyrocketing CEO pay in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Reforms that prevent employers from continuing to unload the runaway costs of health care and prescription drugs on workers.
The four-day legislative conference, which ends today, is just the beginning of a new wave of activism by retirees, Alliance President Barbara Easterling said.
The members of the Alliance for Retired Americans are lifelong activists, who bring energy, enthusiasm and passion to their work. They will be educating and mobilizing their neighbors in the coming weeks because they know that our country will never be a just society until every American has access to quality, affordable health care.
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