St Louis, Missouri. The Missouri State Conference of Electrical Workers has endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by
Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
The Conference, made up of all 21 IBEW local unions in the state of Missouri, represents more than 21,000 members. The endorsement was voted at the regular quarterly meeting on Jan 13th.
Michael Datillo, President of IBEW Local 1455 who also serves as President of the State Conference, said the resolution was supported by both the members and the Executive Board. Datillo stated: “All unions in this Conference have negotiated healthcare for our members. But the Supreme Court has prevented us from negotiating for retirees and with lay offs and plants closing, we all see the distress the healthcare system is in. Healthcare is a big issue at every negotiation. We are looking for a source for all Americans to have a good healthcare system not just our
members.”
To wit, we present the Top Ten Enemies of Single Payer (listed here in alphabetical order):
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
AARP, one of DC’s most powerful lobbying groups, has worked inside the beltway for years to defeat single payer. Why? AARP makes about a quarter of its money selling insurance through its affiliate, United Healthcare Group, the nation’s largest for-profit insurance company. AARP must defeat single payer – which if enacted, would wipe out that revenue stream.
American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
The private health insurance industry. Public enemy number one. The health insurance corporations must die so that the American people can live. Of course, facing the death penalty, AHIP is the most aggressive opponent to single payer. No compromise with AHIP.
American Medical Association
With a shrinking base of doctors (only 25 percent of doctors nationwide belong) — the AMA is the most conservative of the doctors’ organizations. I just returned from a health care policy forum at the Center for American Progress. As usual, not one of the panelists mentioned single payer. Only during the question period did a self-identified patient/citizen ask the single payer question. And a pit bull-like Nancy Nielsen, president of the AMA, ripped into the questioner. “Sounds more like a statement than a question,” Nielsen said. “And clearly you have a point of view about that. And I don’t happen to share that point of view.” Clearly she doesn’t. But just as clearly, the majority of doctors, probably even a majority of doctors who belong to the AMA, support single payer. Nielsen is in denial and must be defeated.
Science does not permit ideology to foreclose inquiry; it requires facing facts and following where they and logic lead. Hence many cheered when President Barack Obama announced that science is back, that predisposition will no longer be permitted to trump reality. Everyone knew he was talking about stem cell research.
Who could have guessed that the Obama administration and key congressional players would exclude single-payer/Medicare-for-all programs from consideration even though that means ignoring the cost savings of hundreds of billions of dollars in private plans’ nonbenefit costs? Further, administration health experts advertise their focus on avoiding incentives for unnecessary treatment, but pay no mind to the expensive distortions that follow from physicians’ ownership interests in high-cost equipment and services. Odd that the scientific method does not apply to medical care where science should govern.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee. My name is David Himmelstein. I am a primary care doctor in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard. I also serve as National Spokesperson for Physicians for a National Health Program. Our 15,000 physician members support non-profit, single payer national health insurance because of overwhelming evidence that lesser reforms will fail.
Health reform must address the cost crisis for insured as well as uninsured Americans.
Pennsylvania union members have delivered tens of thousands of letters in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to Sen. Arlen Specter.
Is it common practice for congressional staff to throw away letters from constituents hoping to have their voices heard? That’s what some of Sen. Arlen Specter’s staff threatened to do to thousands of Pennsylvanians who support the freedom to form unions and bargain.
Specter, who once co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act before he flipped on the bill last month, announced he would support a minority filibuster to prevent it from coming to a vote. Despite once saying he was “delighted” to support it, Specter now is advancing falsehoods about the bill, parroting the extremist charge that it would take away the secret ballot process, which it would not.
Rallies asking Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act have taken place across the state.
In response, thousands of union members, community activists, religious and civil rights leaders and other members of the broad coalition in support of the Employee Free Choice Act have taken action across the state to make their voices heard. In the past two weeks, they have held seven rallies outside of Specter’s offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Harrisburg, Erie, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act have gathered more than 50,000 letters, 35,000 postcards and 12,000 petitions from Pennsylvanians who support the freedom to form unions and bargain.
Specter’s staff grew increasingly aggressive at every event, Pennsylvania union members report. At Specter’s Wilkes-Barre office, where union members and allies delivered thousands of letters and petitions, United Steelworkers (USW) member Tim Waters reports that they were told by a staffer, “as soon as you leave, your letters will go straight in the trash.”
Hello? These are Pennsylvania residents whom the senator represents. This is the way you treat your constituents?
Hundreds of Pennsylvanians took time out this week to make their feelings known to their senator, bringing with them postcards, letters and petitions from tens of thousands of supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act.
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.
Two more California Labor Councils have endorsed HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
One hundred and twenty-five labor councils and/or area labor federations have now endorsed the Conyers legislation. More than fifty per cent of the labor councils in California have endorsed HR 676.
In Merced, California, the Merced-Mariposa Central Labor Council endorsed HR 676, reports Council President John Stewart. Stewart said: “Our Council is supporting HR 676 because we believe this . will create jobs..” Stewart continued, “We believe this is morally right and that this bill will make huge strides in our ongoing fight for social and economic
justice.”
In Fresno, the Central Labor Council of Fresno, Madera, Tulare & King Counties has also endorsed HR 676, reports Randy Ghan, Council Executive Secretary Treasurer.
SEIU members and Butler concerned citizens and nursing home residents held a march and rally to protest the proposed sale of the Butler County owned Sunnyview Nursing Home to private interests.
Bill Moyers interviews William K. Black, a professor of economics and law, an expert in criminal fraud, prosecutor of the S&L bandits, and the man who exposed the Keating 5, the Congressmen and Senators who took bribes to facilitate the S&L fraud. The straightforward and profound revelations by Mr. Black clarify the economic and political nature of the current financial crisis. And his solutions just make plain sense. Listen closely, read the transcript, and please pass this along to everyone you know. The knowledge shared here is very powerful.
Angry Workers:
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 