News from "Unions for Single Payer"

On Wisconsin!  News and What to do in Solidarity.

On Wisconsin!  News and What to do in Solidarity.

http://my.firedoglake.com/kaytillow/2011/02/25/on-wisconsin-news-and-what-to-do-in-solidarity/

In a message to the All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care—HR
676, Jim Cavanaugh, President of the South Central Federation of Labor
(SCFL), said:  "For at least three decades now the working class has been
under severe attack.  In Madison, and throughout Wisconsin, we have
declared that enough is enough and now is the time to turn it around."
The SCFL represents 97 unions and 45,000 workers in Madison and the six
county area.

At SCFL's monthly meeting Monday, February 21, 2011, delegates voted for
the following: "The SCFL endorses a general strike, possibly for the day
Walker signs his 'budget repair bill.'" An ad hoc committee was formed to
explore the details.

Unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and across the country are rising to
defend the rights of workers to organize and bargain to achieve dignity
and a decent life.

Wall Street, not public workers, nor unions, nor government spending,
caused the fiscal crisis that is stressing our states.  Workers should not
have to pay to clean up Wall Street's mess.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/greenspans-incompetence-badgers-wisconsins-workers

Working people know the truth and are rallying to defend the gains made
through generations of struggle.

As workers stood up, hundreds of thousands joined them.
High school students left their classes to march with their teachers.
Hear some of them speak here:
http://www.laborradio.org/wisconsin/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10208169
Inspired by labor's new fighting spirit against Gov. Scott Walker's
assault on public employees, faculty at the University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse voted 249-37 in favor of union representation through American
Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/02/25/uw-la-crosse-faculty-joins-aft-in-midst-of-walkers-attacks/

Physicians demonstrated their support.  Dr. Lou Sanner, a family medicine
physician at University of Wisconsin Health, told the Associated Press he
was one of the doctors involved in writing hundreds of sick notes for
protesters because they were suffering from stress.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/health_med_fit/article_7d742504-3df2-11e0-9f0c-001cc4c03286.html?sourcetrack=moreArticle
.
Rejecting the governor's effort to split off the Firefighters' Union by
exempting those workers from his attack on union rights, the Firefighters
joined the demonstrations and played their bagpipes in solidarity at
street intersections.
On Thursday, February 24, Madison's mayor and police chief called on Gov.
Scott Walker to explain statements he made in a secretly recorded phone
conversation that he "thought about" planting troublemakers among the
thousands of demonstrators at the Capitol.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_40c3dfbe-402c-11e0-8c68-001cc4c002e0.html
When Gov. Scott Walker discussed strategies to lay off state employees for
political purposes, to coordinate supposedly "independent" political
expenditures to aid legislators who support his budget repair bill, and to
place agent provocateurs on the streets of Madison in order to disrupt
peaceful demonstrations, he engaged in what a former attorney general of
Wisconsin says could turn out to be serious ethics, election law and labor
violations.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_0657a7e5-a7ca-59df-abf0-3222b8c8ef98.html
Representative Sandy Pasch, a Democrat representing Wisconsin's 22nd
Assembly District, condemned the governor's budget adjustment bill not
only for destroying bargaining rights but also for threatening 65,000
Wisconsinites with loss of health care coverage in the state's vital
Medical Assistance programs.  Conscious of that threat and in the best
tradition of labor fighting for the uplift of all, the SCFL passed a
motion to block the governor's changes that would cut Medicaid and defund
education.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_428b06d0-3bb1-11e0-bc42-001cc4c002e0.html
A Call for solidarity
Jim Cavanaugh says here's how all of us can help:
"Constant and repeated rallies and other demonstrations of support ARE
very helpful."
"Also, this is costing a lot of money … so, financial support for the
State Fed's defense fund is also appreciated."
You can donate on line.  Go to the website http://www.wisaflcio.org/ ,
scroll down the home page a little ways to the "Donate."
Or CHECKS can be made payable to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Defense Fund,
6333 W. Blue Mound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53213.
To stay informed, listen to the pro-labor daily 3-minute updates from
Workers' Independent News here:  http://www.laborradio.org/   WIN, located
in Madison, tells the story through workers' voices.

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://unionsforsinglepayer.org/
02/25/2011