All posts by carldavidson
Far From Over! Join June 6 EFCA Rally!
Public Meeting on Healthcare with Cong. Altmire 9:15am May 9th in Cranberry
SEND A MESSAGE TO CONGRESSMAN ALTMIRE (D-4th)
HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT,
NOT JUST ANOTHER
‘INSURANCE PRODUCT’
TO BE SOLD FOR PROFIT!
Saturday May 9, 2009
Cranberry Twp. Municipal Building
2525 Rochester Road
9:15 AM
o Insurance companies like AARP do not cure the sick, care for patients, or cure disease.
o Giving taxpayer dollars to insurance companies is not healthcare reform
o We want healthcare not health insurance
o Health care insurance premiums are out of control, rising 100% since 2000 and projected to consume all of the average household income by 2025!
o Private insurance offers less choice. 95% of HMO/PPO metro markets in the USA are near monopolies. UPMC and Highmark are dominant in our area!
PUBLIC OPINION POLLS SHOW STRONG SUPPORT FOR A UNIVERSAL NOT FOR PROFIT SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM
WHY DOES JASON ALTMIRE REFUSE TO LET HR 676, THE U.S. HEALTH CARE ACT, THE SINGLE PAYER SOLUTION BE DEBATED AS A HEALTHCARE OPTION?
WHO DOES JASON ALTMIRE REPRESENT?
INSURANCE/FINANCE COMPANIES OR THE PEOPLE?
For more information
W.PA. Coalition for Single Payer HealthCare
http://www.wpasinglepayer.org
412-826-1270
Pittsburgh: 300 Union Workers Gather to Support EFCA Bill
Angry Workers:
Sen. Arlen Specter
Receives Thousands
of Protest Letters
By Ann Belser
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
April 15, 2009 – Dewitt Walters, of the United Steelworkers, instructs union members and supporters to march two-by-two on the sidewalk along the Boulevard of the Allies yesterday as they walk to Sen. Arlen Specter’s Pittsburgh office to deliver petitions supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Union members rallied at the USW headquarters before the march.
Local labor organizations figured maybe 50 people would want to come along to hand-deliver thousands of letters, written in favor of pending legislation, to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s office.
Continue reading Pittsburgh: 300 Union Workers Gather to Support EFCA Bill
One Minute of Wisdom: Kucinich on Dealing with The Crisis by Putting the Fed Under Treasury
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
States His Intention
To Put The Federal Reserve
Under Government Control
Obama Summit on Healthcare – Marginalized Advocates Ask Why Single Payer is Ignored
Why Is Single Payer Not Front and Center?
President Obama hosted a White House summit Thursday on reforming healthcare. While President Obama said every idea must be considered, the idea of creating a single-payer national health insurance program appears to have already been rejected. We speak to Harper’s senior editor Luke Mitchell, author of the article “Sick in the Head: Why America Won’t Get the Health-Care System It Needs.”
Listen/Watch/Read:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/6/as_obama_hosts_summit_on_health
County Residents Give Congressman Altmire and Transport Officials An Earful
Photo: Jason Altmire, (D-4th-PA) at labor meeting
Residents Speak Up
at ‘Town Hall’ Forum
on Transportation
and Job Issues
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Congressman Jason Altmire got an earful at the Feb. 17 “Town Meeting’ on transportation issues held at Beaver County Community College, with some voices straying beyond the official agenda. But then, that’s what the representative from PA’s 4th CD called for when he launched sessions around the district inviting public participation.
The topic was Pennsylvania’s roads, bridges and traffic patterns, and how to keep the state, district and county from being shortchanged on all fronts. But it widened to include environmental protection, youth unemployment, racism in hiring, high-speed rail, rebuilding lock and dams, and general praise for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package. Continue reading County Residents Give Congressman Altmire and Transport Officials An Earful
Aliquippa Workers to Bridge Finance: ‘Why Are We the First in Line to Work, and the Last in Line for Payment?’
Photo: Debi Davidson, Unpaid Nurse at CMC
CMC Hospital
Workers Still
Waiting for Pay
By Michael Pound
Beaver County Times
“They found money to pay the lawyers, and they still won’t pay us? It is outrageous.” –Michelle Batchelor, Hopewell Township, former operating room nurse at Commonwealth Medical Center.
———
PITTSBURGH, Feb 18, 2009 – The company that holds the checkbook for the bankrupt Commonwealth Medical Center found money to pay the attorneys who represent many of the hospital’s creditors — but the folks who worked for the hospital in the weeks before it closed are still waiting to hear when they’ll get their money.
Despite assuring everyone involved that there would be an agreement in place to ensure that those checks would be forthcoming, an attorney representing Bridge Healthcare Finance — the primary creditor in the case and the firm that controls whatever money is spent by the hospital — pulled back from those discussions, with the exception of finding about $20,000 for paying other lawyers involved in the case.
Continue reading Aliquippa Workers to Bridge Finance: ‘Why Are We the First in Line to Work, and the Last in Line for Payment?’
Once Again, Aliquippa Workers Hit the Streets to Demand Their Pay
Photo: CMC workers gather for vigil and march
Bridge Finance
Dragging Feet on
Final Payment to
Hospital Workers
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Why is a major Chicago financial group with millions once again behaving like a low-life deadbeat, needing to be dunned for payment by the hospital workers it owes, and who have very little?
That’s the question that sent Aliquippa’s former employees of the Commonwealth Medical Center back to the shutdown hospital Feb 16 for a candlelight vigil and nighttime march through neighborhood streets. About 50 nurses and staff, fired last December, braved freezing weather to demand, once again, their full back wages. About two weeks earlier, after a brief sit-in in the facility, they got about half their money, with the other half promised within weeks. The promise proved empty, if not deceitful. Continue reading Once Again, Aliquippa Workers Hit the Streets to Demand Their Pay
5000 Steelworkers Deliver a Message to GOP Stimulus Blockers and Cutters
Steelworkers Jobs
March Draws Thousands
in Granite City, IL
By Scott Cousins
St Louis Suburban Journals
Feb. 10, 2009 – A line of more than 5,500 laid-off steelworkers from Granite City, auto workers from Decatur and Fenton, Mo., and their supporters stretched out for more than eight blocks along a mile-long route as part of a “Put America Back To Work” march Tuesday morning in Granite City.
The march, sponsored by local and state labor unions and several community groups, was held to support passage of a federal stimulus bill, including a “buy American” provision.
Both city and union officials said slightly more than 5,500 people participated. Continue reading 5000 Steelworkers Deliver a Message to GOP Stimulus Blockers and Cutters
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 