> Maine AFL-CIO Calls for Labor Summit & Strategy to Win Single Payer
>
> by Matt Schlobohm, Public Policy & Poltical Mobilization Director,
> Maine
> AFL-CIO, and Charlie Urquhart, Organizer, Maine Labor Group on Health
>
> On Friday October 23, 2009 the delegates at the Maine AFL-CIO's 27th
> Biennial Convention unanimously passed a resolution calling on the
> AFL-CIO
> to convene, after the current healthcare reform process in Congress
> concludes, a democratic strategic planning process to develop a long
> term
> strategy to win Single Payer national health insurance.
>
> The resolution was enthusiastically supported by the delegates and is
> rooted in the belief that to win a Medicare for all single payer
> system
> the labor movement needs to pursue a different strategy – one that is
> rooted in building a broadbased social movement, taking a long term
> approach to this fight, organizing around basic principles and
> pursuing
> relentless rank & file education and mobilization.
>
> Maine AFL-CIO Vice President & IBEW 567 Training Director Don Berry
> laid
> out the Federation's position, "Most union leaders are clear that we
> need
> a single payer system to solve the healthcare crisis. Yet as a labor
> movement our strategy has not been clearly, solidly and unambiguously
> behind single payer. We think it is time for us to commit to and
> stick
> with a long term strategy to win Medicare for All. That's the only
> thing
> that's going to get us out of the healthcare crisis we face at the
> bargaining table and in society at large and its high time we put
> our full
> force behind it."
>
> Building on the momentum of the National AFL-CIO's historic and
> unanimous
> passage of Resolution 34 that called for the creation of a Medicare
> for
> All, single payer social insurance program, the Maine AFL-CIO saw this
> resolution as an important step to making that resolution real and
> pursuing some important next steps.
>
> In this spirit the Maine AFL-CIO unanimously passed the following
> resolution:
>
> RESOLUTION # 5
>
> Single Payer Healthcare Resolution
> Whereas the National AFL-CIO unanimously passed Resolution 34 strongly
> endorsing a Medicare for All single payer health care system;
>
> Whereas 39 State AFL-CIO Federations, 134 Central Labor Councils,
> and 572
> different labor organizations have endorsed HR 676;
>
> Whereas as a State Federation we strongly believe that a Medicare
> for all
> national health insurance system with single payer financing is the
> solution that is required to solve the healthcare crisis union members
> face at the bargaining table and that we face collectively as a
> society;
>
> Whereas regardless of how the current healthcare reform effort
> concludes
> in Congress it will not come close to solving the current healthcare
> crisis;
>
> Whereas historically, significant structural changes in this country
> have
> occurred when progressive forces have built powerful social
> movements that
> organize around a long term strategy that involves relentless rank &
> file
> education, organizing around basic fundamental principles, having
> rank &
> file leaders lead the movement and committing to a long term
> approach to
> the issue;
>
> Whereas we strongly believe that to win a single payer national health
> insurance system the labor movement needs to pursue that kind of
> strategy
> and work to build a broad based working class social movement and;
>
> Whereas we believe that had we collectively pursued such a strategy
> after
> the last healthcare policy failure in Congress in the mid 1990s – by
> staking out a strong single payer position, educating our membership
> as
> deeply as possible, pushing for political support of single payer
> legislation and sticking with that approach for the last fifteen
> years –
> we would be in a much stronger position today to win meaningful
> healthcare
> reform;
>
> Therefore, we call on the National AFL-CIO to convene, after the
> current
> healthcare reform process in Congress concludes, a democratic
> strategic
> planning process to develop a long term strategy to win Single Payer
> national health insurance. We think this process should:
>
> 1. Start with a Single Payer labor movement summit
>
> 2. Involve, among others, Central Labor Councils, State Federations
> and
> rank & file single payer union activists in the planning process
>
> 3. Do an assessment of how we've historically built powerful social
> movements in this country and put our best thinking forward about what
> would need to be done today to build a social movement powerful
> enough to
> win single payer
>
> 4. Include a commitment of resources from the AFL-CIO of no less
> than the
> resources that have been devoted to the current health care reform
> effort
>
> 5. Include a commitment from the AFL-CIO to support state's efforts to
> pass single payer legislation
>
> Submitted by: the Western Maine Labor Council to the Maine AFL-CIO's
> 27th
> Biennial Convention
> Approved unanimously by Maine AFL-CIO Convention delegates: Friday
> October
> 23, 2009
>
> Distributed by:
> All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
> c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
> 1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
> Louisville, KY 40217
> (502) 636 1551
> Email: nursenpo@aol.com
> http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org
> 12/10/09
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