Brattleboro, VT — On the evening of September 25th more than fifty Brattleboro residents came to St. Michaels Episcopal Church to participate in the first Human Rights Hearing on Healhcare. This was the first of a series of hearings to be held throughout the state as part of the Vermont Workers' Center's new Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign. Since last May 1st, volunteers and allies of the Center have been on the streets of most the larger towns and on many job sites asking fellow Vermonters to fill out a survey about their experiences with the healthcare system. Our goal is to have over 1000 of these personal interviews done by December, and we will release a report on our findings on December 10th, which marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations in 1948.
The Brattleboro hearing was co-sponsored by Vermont the Citizens Campaign For Health (VCCH), the ALANA Community Organization and the Brattleboro Union High School student group Child Labor Education and Action. Testimony was heard by a community listening panel chaired by Shela Linton of ALANA and Richard Davis of VCCH, which also included Carol Whitaker, RN, a nurses' union leader at the Brattleboro Retreat; Kathleen Clark, RN, Vice President of the Brattleboro Federation of Nurses at the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital; Daniel Herlocker, RN, also a union member at the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital; the Reverend Lise Sparrow, minister at the Guilford Community Church; Rosa Palmeri of Child Labor Education & Action; and Dianne Champion, Brattleboro District Director of the Vermont Department of Health.
The first testimony came from Nancy Hodecker who told of the painful experience of losing her husband to tongue cancer. She said he was uninsured, and ignored the sore because of health costs until it was too late and he had developed class four cancer. Other testimony highlighted the relationship with healthcare to homelessness, racial discrimination in treatment sometimes received in the healthcare system, and a powerful report of a Brattleboro resident who said that she stayed in an abusive relationship for 22 years because her husband threatened to cut her and her children — one of whom had cancer — off from his insurance if she left him.
The event closed by passing around an "I'll Be There" sign-up sheet for the May 1, 2009 Healthcare Is A Human Right Rally at the State House in Montpelier. Almost every single person in attendance signed it. Other hearings are planned in Burlington on October 23rd, St. Albans November 13th and St. Johnsbury November 18th. More hearings are planned in other cities and towns throughout the state.
Healthcare System Put on Trial In Brattleboro
Main Street not Wall Street! Action October 1st
While attention has focused recently on the Wall Street financial crisis, working families in Vermont and across the country have been facing an economic crisis in recent years, including: unaffordable healthcare, the lack of livable-wage jobs, foreclosures and a general decline in spending power. The Vermont Workers' Center is part of a national labor-community-faith coalition called Jobs With Justice, which is organizing a national day of action on October 1st. Across the country, people will conduct rallies, street theater, bake sales and actions to tell Congress and Wall Street that people are fed up with corporate greed and demand action to address the economic crisis facing working people, not just Wall Street financiers.
Workers' Center members will be giving Vermonters an opportunity to make their voices heard about what priorities Congress should have in dealing with the economic crisis, through a Vermonters Speakout Survey. The Workers' Center will deliver the responses to Vermont's Congressional delegation.
Workers' Center members will be gathering at the corner of Main Street and Church Street in downtown Burlington at noon on Wednesday, October 1st.
More information:
The first bail-out "compromise" failed largely due to overwhelming opposition from working families, because it did not address the needs of Main Street and constituted yet another give-away to the wealthy. Jobs with Justice is telling Congress:
- Make the people that created and profited from the mess pay for the clean-up, now.
- Any infusion of capital must have specific, binding public ownership requirements.
- Restructure and rein in the reckless private financial institutions.
- Pass a real recovery plan, for Main Street as well as Wall Street, paid for with progressive taxation, that addresses the needs for good jobs, affordable housing, health care, pensions, infrastructure and 'green' economy.
"Where is the bail out for the 47 million uninsured Americans without healthcare and the many millions of others facing unaffordable increases in costs for basic healthcare. Isn't that a crisis? Where is the bail out for those communities impacted by plant closings that throw thousands out of work. Isn't that a crisis?," says Dawn Stanger, President of the Vermont Workers' Center - Jobs With Justice. "Why is it only a crisis in our country when it involves Wall Street banks, private equity firms, investment houses and the wealthy that control their shares? And why does Wall Street's crisis suddenly become all of our problem."
Congressmen Welch's statement on why he voted against the bailout
Economist Dean Baker's cut on why the bill was bad
A piece on how to pay for the progressive economic recovery plan we need
Tell Congress: No Wall Street Bail-out! We need you to STEP UP!
Watch Danny Schechter explaining how the bailout will preempt any new administration from following through on promises, then TAKE ACTION!
September 25: Brattleboro Human Rights Hearing
Human Rights Hearing: "Healthcare is a Human Right" to be held at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Brattleboro, Thursday September 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Brattleboro - For months volunteers for the Vermont Workers' Center have been surveying Vermonters from all across the state, including many in the Brattleboro community. The results have been clear: Vermonters believe that healthcare should be a human right.
The state, however, has come up short on this issue. More than 11 percent of all Vermonters are without health insurance, including more than 11,000 children. Thousands more are woefully under-insured, and cannot afford their costly premiums and co-pays, which are only rising as the cost of healthcare soars.
The Vermont Workers' Center is currently undertaking its "Healthcare is a Human Right" campaign to help end this injustice. The goal of the campaign is to spread awareness and build a movement that can help reform the state's system so it will guarantee care to all Vermonters, regardless of income. On Thursday, September 25, this discussion is coming to Brattleboro at St. Michael's Episcopal Church. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. (refreshments will be available).
Community faith leaders and healthcare professionals and other community leaders will serve on a Community Listening Panel to hear testimony from residents. Speakers will address the failure of the state's healthcare system, the plight of those who try to navigate through it, and effective ways to bring about change. The event will give members of the community a chance to share stories highlighting how our flawed system has caused them suffering and hardship.
"We have learned that Vermonters really view healthcare as something that should be a human right — a value that we all share," said Ellen Schwartz, a Brattleboro resident and a volunteer for the Workers' Center. "We are also have found people who have experienced a great deal of suffering because we do not have this right. This hearing will be an opportunity to make some of these stories heard."
Similar "Human Rights Forums" will be held all across the state, in the coming months as the Workers' Center continues its effort to fight for a just healthcare system that values human lives over profit — an attainable goal, given Vermont's passionate and engaged citizenry.
All are welcome. For more information visit workerscenter.org/healthcare, or call Erika Simard at 802-316-7827.
Other sponsors for the events include: Vermont Citizens Campaign For Health (VCCH), ALANA Community Organization and CLEA.
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Northrup Grummon workers win contract in St. Albans!
Statement from the Northrup Grummon workers UE Local 208:
"On Friday Sept. 12th, UE Local 208 ratified its first Union contract. The contract contains a 9% wage increase over three years, an increase in benefits and other protections. The vote to accept the agreement marked the end of the struggle for a first contract over the past few months. UE Local 208 members at USCIS would like to thank the Vermont Workers' Center for all your support. You have been there for us every step of the way from forming our Union to winning our first contract. We know you will continue to support our struggle for justice at USCIS. We look forward to working with and giving our support to the Vermont Workers' Center in the future."
This is a great victory, here's how one of our members, Damon Hall with the Ironworkers Local 7, put it in a letter published by the St. Albans Messenger this week:
Good that you stood up for your rights
9/22/2008
I would like to congratulate all the workers employed by Northrop-Grumman who did not give up the battle for their rights as workers! It can be a long hard road when you are trying to organize and negotiate a contract, especially when faced with a brutal anti-union campaign that scares workers with lies. You all have stood up and shown others here in VT that it can be achieved if you stick together and work as one. With wages going down and fuel skyrocketing the job world out there can be pretty gruesome. Workers that organize can negotiate their wages & benefits instead of being forced to accept what is fed to them. My hat goes off to all of you and I hope others out there realize that you have to work hard and fight for the things you believe in because it is not going to be handed to you. The benefits in end far out way the battles along the way. E PLURIBUS UNUM (out of many, one.)
Damon Hall
Swanton
Vermont AFL-CIO Endorses Campaign
This resolution was approved unanimously September 14th at 2008 Vermont State Labor Council Convention:
REAFFIRM OUR SUPPORT FOR SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Submitted by: Washington-Orange-Lamoille and Champlain Valley Central Labor Councils & UAW Local 1981
WHEREAS, workers, their families and their unions are waging an increasingly difficult struggle to win or to keep good health care coverage.
WHEREAS, almost every union at every contract deadline must battle and sacrifice merely to sustain health care benefits. The rising costs of health insurance are blocking workers' progress in wages and other areas. All of our unions face a healthcare crisis. But the crisis extends far beyond union members. Nearly 50 million people in the United States are currently without health insurance. More than 75 million went without health coverage for some length of time within the last two years, and millions more have inadequate coverage, or are at risk of losing coverage.
WHEREAS, while we in the United States spend approximately twice as much of our gross domestic product as other developed nations on health care, we remain the only industrialized country without universal coverage. Even though we spend far more per capita, we lag behind our international peers in terms of quality, health attainment, and over-all health system performance. We spend more and get less. Our problem worsens each year as insurance costs increase and gradual solutions have failed to make a dent in the problem.
WHEREAS, the U.S. health system continues to treat health care as a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather than as a social service to be distributed according to human need. Insurance companies and HMOs compete not by increasing quality or lowering costs, but by avoiding covering those whose needs are greatest.
WHEREAS, people of color, immigrants and women are denied care at disproportionate rates, while the elderly and many others must choose between necessities and life sustaining drugs and care. Unorganized workers have either no coverage or inadequate coverage. The Institute of Medicine has found that each year more than 18,000 in the U.S. die because they had no health insurance.
WHEREAS, economic necessity and moral conscience compel us to seek a better way.
WHEREAS, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) (joined by 91 cosponsors, including Rep. Peter Welch) has introduced HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, also called Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. This single-payer health care program proposes an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing health costs while covering all Americans. The bill also restores free choice of physicians to patients and provides comprehensive prescription drug coverage to seniors, as well as to younger people.
WHEREAS, HR 676 would cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. The transition to national health insurance would apply the savings from administration and profits to expanded and improved coverage for all.
WHEREAS, a single payer program as provided by HR 676 is the only affordable option for universal, comprehensive coverage.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO reaffirms our September 2006 Convention’s support for HR 676, "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All," a single payer health care program, as currently written.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO will work with other Labor Organizations and community groups to build a groundswell of popular support and action for single payer universal health care until we make what is morally right into what is also politically possible.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO will send a copy of this resolution to Congressman Conyers and to the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO will take other actions to mobilize our members and our community at the grassroots, including urging our affiliates to work with the Vermont Workers Center’s Healthcare is a Human Right campaign.
ST. ALBANS RALLY MONDAY
Support UE Local 208 on Monday, September 8th at 2:15 in a rally for a fair Union contract.
Healthcare Is A Human Right
Brattleboro Reformer, Labor Day Weekend Editorial
http://www.reformer.com/localeditorials/ci_10330416
(also ran in Burlington Free Press, Rutland Herald and Bennington Banner)
By Dawn Stanger
Friday, August 29
BURLINGTON — The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, proclaimed, "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care."
Although these principles were adopted at the urging of the United States, our government has failed to achieve these rights for all of us. Our rights to health and medical care are denied by a private, for-profit health insurance system. We are the wealthiest country in the world. What good is government if it doesn't help us to do together what we can't achieve individually?
Labor Day honors the contributions of our grandparents and great-grandparents who struggled to create a better society for us.
There is a saying, "The Labor Movement: The Folks Who Brought You The Weekend," but united workers struggled for more than just the 40-hour week. The minimum wage, Social Security, the end of child labor, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and more all were the results of their work. We are proud of our ancestors and toast them.
But in the U.S., that list falls short.
For the Vermont Workers' Center, Labor Day 2008 marks a renewal of the struggle to make health care a basic human right, not linked to employment or income. Now, only rich people can afford care from the "cradle to grave." It is a moral imperative that we createAdvertisementa new system that recognizes this basic human right for all of us.
This summer, our folks have been all over the state surveying Vermonters. The question, "Do you believe we have a human right to health care?" is just one being asked as part of our "Health Care is a Human Right" campaign. We aim to change what's politically possible with grassroots organizing among regular Vermonters.
Health care should not be a marketed commodity upon which the few get rich denying care, while the many die, suffer and amass huge debts. The private health insurance system has failed. This is not just a crisis of the "uninsured." It's a crisis the insured as well.
We already knew that 50 percent of all bankruptcies were caused by health care costs, but we didn't yet have personal stories from Vermonters. The survey responses we have collected from hundreds of Vermonters have been real eye-openers. Approximately two-thirds of those surveyed have refrained from getting treatment or drugs because they couldn't afford it.
A majority has kept jobs for fear of losing health insurance. Almost one in five experienced discrimination accessing care. More than one in 10 stayed in abusive relationships for insurance. Now we'd like to learn even more from you.
We collect surveys by knocking on neighbors' doors, and talking at work, community events, and house parties hosted by volunteers (and we can always use more). Next, we'll host "Human Rights Hearings," where community leaders can hear from those most affected: working Vermonters, the unemployed, retirees, the un- and under-insured. The Vermont Workers Center expects to hold hearings in Brattleboro, Burlington, Barre and the Northeast Kingdom in coming months, expanding from there. We hope, for all Vermont's families, that some Labor Day in the years to come we'll celebrate the successful struggle of working families for the basic human right to health care.
Dawn Stanger is president of the Vermont Workers' Center and a Teamster who works for United Parcel Service. For more information about the campaign, to volunteer or take the survey, contact the Vermont Workers' Center at 866-229-0009 or visit www.workerscenter.org/healthcare.
Northrup Grumman workers contribute "ethics" posters to company contest
Northrop Grumman, one of the companies that employs service center workers fighting for a first contract in St. Albans, held an "ethics" themed poster contest. UE Local 208 Northrop Grumman employees created their own submissions to the contest. See more of their posters at justiceatuscis.org . Also, on August 18th Workers' Center members helped lead a community/worker delegation which included State Senator Ginny Lyons and State Rep. Chris Pearson to the regional office of Homeland Security in South Burlington. We went to ask them to tell their DC adminstration the community was concerned and that the workers deserve livable wages. Here is a link to photo and recap»
Healthcare Campaign Off to a Great Start
This summer, volunteers and staff from the Vermont Workers' Center have been asking working Vermonters a simple question — "Do you believe we have a human right to healthcare?"
That question is part of a survey being conducted as the first phase of the Workers' Center's Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign. This campaign aims to change what is "politically possible" in the healthcare debate through grassroots organizing and expanding public understanding of the human rights framework. "Sixty years ago, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the nations of the world — including the U.S. — declared that everyone has a basic human right to medical care and security in the event of sickness or disability," said Dawn Stanger, president of the Workers' Center. "Sadly, that right is not respected in the U.S., the wealthiest country in the world."
So far, the Center has surveyed over four hundred Vermonters, with a goal of reaching well over a thousand this fall. Some of the survey results have been eye-openers. Approximately two-thirds of respondents had refrained from getting health care at some point because they felt they were unable to afford it. A majority have stayed in a job only because of health insurance benefits. Almost one in five have experienced discrimination in trying to access healthcare, and more than one in ten respondents have stayed in an abusive relationship in order not to lose health benefits.
Surveys are being collected door-to-door, in workplaces, at community events and house parties hosted by volunteers. "The effort is really to try to speak to people who haven’t been involved in politics before," said Colin Robinson of the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, which is joining the Workers' Center in the campaign.
The next stage of the campaign will feature Human Rights Hearings in locations around the state in the fall, where community leaders will gather to hear testimony from those most affected by the healthcare crisis: working Vermonters, the unemployed, retirees, the un- and under-insured. The Workers' Center expects to hold hearings in Brattleboro, Burlington, Barre and the Northeast Kingdom in the coming months, expanding to more locations as the campaign continues.
For more information about the campaign, to volunteer or take the survey, contact VWC Healthcare Organizer Erika Simard at 861-2877 (Burlington) or 866-229-0009 (toll-free), or visit workerscenter.org/healthcare
BURLINGTON LABOR DAY CELEBRATION
Monday,
September 1st
PARADE
PICNIC
CONCERT
at BATTERY PARK
PARADE: 10:30am gather at the Waterman Building parking lot, UVM off South Prospect Street, march down Main Street to downtown and end at Battery Park.
FREE PICNIC: with Ben & Jerry's ICE CREAM at Battery Park
GREAT MUSIC: Utah Phillips Tribute Concert to Benefit the Vermont Workers' Center
This fun family event celebrates the contributions of working people in this state and unites Vermonters across workforces in the ongoing struggle to raise the standards in our communities. If your organization is interested in marching in the parade, call Maria at 658-3113 to register with the Labor Day Celebration Committee.
Tribute Concert: The concert is free with suggested donations to go to the Vermont Workers' Center, a working families organization located at 294 North Winooski Avenue. The Vermont Workers' Center has launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign and helps coordinate the Burlington Livable City Coalition.
Utah Phillips (1935 - 2008): the great folksinger, storyteller and labor activist, passed away this May. Utah performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents singing and collecting the songs of working people and the workers' movement for decades. He made two Grammy nominated albums with Ani Difranco called Fellow Worker and History Didn't Go Anywhere. Local bands and performers will include: John Holland, The Trout River Crew, Andy Lugo (Second Agenda), Electric Halo, Andy Schlatter, Nick Gruswitz, Julie Winn & Jonathan Kissam and many more. More info on concert call James at 861-2877
Canadian Trade Unionists Visit VWC
Last Wednesday, a delegation from the Canadian Labour Congress (shown above, with VWC Healthcare Organizer Erika Simard) visited the Workers' Center. The visit was part of a week-long class called The Changing Face of the Canadian Labour Movement: Unions Responding in Solidarity led by Karl Flecker, National Director of the Congress's Anti-Racism and Human Rights Department. The purpose of the course was to help rank and file trade unionists examine the changing demographics and new issues facing workers today, including water/trade, immigration, globalization, security, and migrant issues.
The Canadians got a chance to speak with Donna Iverson, a Burlington paraeducator and leader of the livable wage victory, and Vermont NEA staff and former director of the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, about the strategies and tactics used in the long struggle for livable wages in the Burlington school district. They also spoke with VWC Healthcare Organizer Erika Simard about the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign, and, like most international visitors, expressed shock at the inhumane and inefficient and healthcare "system" in the U.S.
VWC Coordinating Committee member Jonathan Kissam gave them a walking tour of the Old North End, discussing the demographics and some of the neighborhood community struggles that the Workers' Center has been involved in, including supporting efforts to keep Lawrence Barnes school open.
St. Albans Messenger Article on Campaign
Health care as a human right?
Written By Michelle Monroe
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
ST. ALBANS CITY — The Vermont Worker’s Center (VWC) has launched a statewide campaign to re-conceptualize health care as a human right and change what is “politically possible,” according to VWC organizer Erika Simard.
VWC is a member-run organization best known for its worker’s rights hotline. This is the first time the organization has run a statewide, grass roots campaign. It was inspired, in part, by the number of calls concerning health care that are received on the hotline, Simard explained.
The initial phase of the campaign, which will culminate in a Sick Day at the state capitol on May 1, 2009, will focus on a survey of Vermonters beliefs about health care and experiences with the current health care system. VWC is also hoping to organize house parties where attendees will have the chance to view a shorter version of the Michael Moore film “Sicko.”
VWC plans to hold hearings on health care as human right, and to compile its survey results and hearing testimony into a written report. The intent, Simard said, is to put “the health care crisis on trial.”
Dozens of Vermonters have already signed on to be part of organizing committees around the state, according to Simard.
Those people will use their natural connections with neighbors, friends, family and co-workers to build a grass roots organization, Simard said.
Janice Santiago, a St. Albans resident who has signed on to help with the campaign, said she will probably start with her neighbors. “I think health care is a vital human need,” Santiago said.
“The effort is really to try to speak to people who haven’t been involved in politics before,” Colin Robinson of the Peace and Justice Center said.
The Peace and Justice Center (PJC) has joined with VWC for this campaign. The Center is currently focused on passing legislation guaranteeing paid sick leave for all Vermonters. According to information provided by the Peace and Justice Center, 66 percent of Vermont’s private employers do not offer paid sick leave, and 135,000 Vermont workers do not have paid sick days.
Traditionally, Robinson explained, PJC has focused its efforts on securing a livable wage. “The livable wage keeps going up because the cost of living keeps going up,” Robinson said. Until rising costs for health care, housing, energy and other necessities can be brought under control, a living wage may not be attainable, according to Robinson.
The campaign is not connected to the upcoming elections, Simard said. “We have a broader view that we’re working on,” she said. “Something needs to change,” Simard said, adding, “The only thing that really makes sense is to make it a human right and build from there.”
“The United States is the only ‘industrialized’ country that doesn’t provide health care as a right to every resident from cradle to grave,” VWC states in campaign literature.
Discussing the financing of health care, VWC points out that in order to cover the costs of providing health care to the uninsured, hospitals and other providers raise the fees charged to private insurers, which in turn raise their fees. “Establishing healthcare as a human right where universal coverage comes from an equitable system of taxes only makes sense. It would establish a system where we all pay what we can afford and everyone is covered,” VWC states.
July 14: Rally to Support Service Center Workers in St. Albans
UPDATE: Over 60 service center workers and supporters from the VWC rallied in St. Albans on July 14, while USCIS workers in California took action as well. More »
UE Local 208 USCIS Vermont Service Center workers need your support at their march and rally on July 14th. They are fighting for a fair first contract by August first and need as much community support as possible to demand that the companies respect this deadline and bargain now. These workers — the vast majority of them women — have waited long enough for decent wage increases and better benefits.
Monday July 14th 2008
2:00pm
Beginning at Tabor Building 75 Lower Weldon St, St. Albans then marching to Taylor Park in the center of town at 2:30pm.
More information about the workers' struggle is available at justiceatuscis.org.
Download a flier for the march and rally here (in PDF format).
Directions to the Tabor building in St. Albans where the rally will begin:
Directions (from I-89): Go straight off exit ramp through the light until you reach S. Main St. Make a right on S. Main St. Make a left onto Lower Weldon St. The address is 75 Lower Weldon St [ Google Map ].
Take One Action for Healthcare Is a Human Right This Summer
The success of this campaign will depend on the efforts of hundreds and thousands of Vermonters — workers, students, retirees and folks on disability — reaching out to their co-workers, friends, neighbors and communities about the campaign. Please consider volunteering to take at least one action for the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign this summer:
workerscenter.org/healthcare/volunteer
Healthcare Campaign Begins
The Workers' Center is pleased to announced that we have hired a new organizer for the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign: Erika Simard, who lost her healthcare benefits three years ago when Specialty Filaments, the factory she worked at for 22 years, closed in 2005.
"Healthcare should not be a commodity and it should not be something that is tied to employment. It needs to be a basic public good, something that as a community we establish everyone has access to," says Simard.
This summer VWC members, volunteers and allies are conducting outreach to thousands of Vermonters in communities across the state, including conducting a Vermont healthcare survey to collect the voices of the healthcare crisis. Supporters, union members and new campaign activists have begun holding healthcare house parties with their friends and neighbors to learn about the campaign. In the Fall, there will be public healthcare human rights hearings with testimony of "healthcare horror stories" and on the right to health. On December 13th, the Workers' Center is holding a Human Rights Conference, in commemoration on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held at the University of Vermont. In this process, the Workers' Center will be building the statewide action network capable of mobilizing thousands of Vermonters for the May 1st Healthcare is A Human Right Rally at the State House.
"Many Vermont policy makers say they agree that healthcare should be a basic right to all Vermonters and many even say they support single-payer healthcare in theory. But they say it is just not politically possible. So this campaign is to change that," says James Haslam, lead organizer/director of the Vermont Workers' Center. "Our goal is to begin a strategic reframing of healthcare as a basic human right and the healthcare crisis as a human rights emergency. Right now we have a segrated healthcare system, some people have great care and many go without the care they need because of the costs. Right now the insurance companies are focused on how to deny coverage. We need a system that is geared to keep people healthy."
If you are interested in learning more about getting involved, filling out a survey and helping getting more surveys filled out in your community and possibly holding a healthcare house party email erika@workerscenter.org or call Erika at 802-316-7827.
A New Path Towards Social Justice
Traven Leyshon, Workers' Center Coordinating Committee member and President of the Central Vermont Labor Council, interview with Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Fernando Gapasin on their new book, Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Towards Social Justice. Joined by VT Workers Center Director James Haslam.
Workers' Center Launches Healthcare is Human Right Campaign
At its 10th Anniversery Celebration in the Old Labor Hall, the Vermont Workers' Center officially launched the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign, a new major statewide grassroots organizing campaign to change what is “politically possible” for healthcare in Vermont. The first phase of the campaign will culminate in a statewide Sick Day Rally on Friday, May 1st, 2009 for a Healthcare is a Human Right Rally at the State House.
"Healthcare should not be a commodity and it should not be something that is tied to employment. It needs to be a basic public good, something that as a community we establish everyone has access to," says new Workers' Center organizer Erika Simard, who lost her healthcare benefits three years ago when Specialty Filaments, the factory she worked at fors 22 years closed in 2005.
This summer VWC members, volunteers and allies are conducting outreach to thousands of Vermonters in communities across the state, including conducting a Vermont healthcare survey to collect the voices of the healthcare crisis. Supporters, union members and new campaign activists have begun holding healthcare house parties with their friends and neighbors to learn about the campaign. In the Fall, there will be public healthcare human rights hearings with testimony of "healthcare horror stories" and on the right to health. On December 13th, the Workers' Center is holding a Human Rights Conference, in commemoration on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights held at the University of Vermont. The goal is that in this process, the Workers' Center will be building the statewide action network capable of mobilizing thousands of Vermonters for the May 1st Healthcare is A Human Right Rally at the State House.
"Many Vermont policy makers say they agree that healthcare should be a basic right to all Vermonters and many even say they support single-payer healthcare in theory. But they say it is just not politically possible. So this campaign is to change that," says James Haslam, lead organizer/director of the Vermont Workers' Center. "Our goal is to begin a strategic reframing of healthcare as a basic human right and the healthcare crisis as a human rights emergency. Right now we have a segrated healthcare system, some people have great care and many go without the care they need because of the costs. Right now the insurance companies are focused on how to deny coverage. We need a system that is geared to keep people healthy."
On May 1st, 2009 there there will be busses, carpools and caravans from all over the state converging on Montpelier. The Workers' Center is asking Vermonters who are sick of the rising costs of healthcare and believe that healthcare should be a human right to mark their calendars and plan to call in sick that day and come to the rally. Small businesses who agree that healthcare should not be tied to employment but available to everyone and financed publicly through fair taxes, are asked to make it a "Healthcare Holiday" and join their employees for the rally in Montpelier. If you are interested in learning more about getting involved, filling aout a survey and helping getting more surveys filled out in your community and possibly holding a healthcare house party email erika@workerscenter.org or call Erika at 802-316-7827. The campaign's blog is www.workerscenter.org/healthcare.
Livable Wage Victory for Burlington Food Service & Custodial Workers
Livable Wage Victory for Burlington Food Service & Custodial Workers:
Burlington, VT – After a three and a half year campaign, Burlington school food service and custodial worker of AFSCME Local 1343 won an agreement that will bring its all of its members up to a livable wage by the end of the contract. This agreement is being celebrated as a ground-breaking victory. This is the second livable wage victory in less then a year, last fall the Burlington para-educators had the first livable wage victory in the Burlington Schools.
“It is incredibly exciting that after such a long struggle all the food service and custodial workers will receive a livable wage. Many of us struggle to make ends meet and work second jobs to get by,” says food service worker Sandy McAuliffe. “This a good step towards ensuring our families can meet their basic needs.”
The campaign for livable wages for Burlington food service and custodial workers has not been without struggle. It took three years of educating school board and community members, as well as organizing faith leaders, elected officials, other union members and hundreds of Burlington residents to show their support.
From the beginning of the campaign for livable wages, it was clear that in addition to being an issue of fighting poverty, it was also about gender wage inequity. This livable wage victory for food service workers finally helps to close the gender wage gap between municipal workers, who are guaranteed a livable wage by ordinance and are mostly men, and food service workers, who are predominately women and make less than a livable wage. “The fact that the food service workers are predominately women and were not guaranteed a livable wage was a clear example of gender wage inequity that is still all too pervasive in our society,” says Colin Robinson, Director of the Peace and Justice Center’s, Vermont Livable Wage Campaign. “It is wonderful that this inequity if finally being corrected within the Burlington school district.”
This livable wage success for food service and custodial workers helps to ensure that Burlington remains truly livable for more of its residents, however this is not the case for everyone. The Burlington Livable City Coalition (BLCC), a group of community organizations and unions that works to ensure Burlington is truly livable for all its residents, came together in part of this struggle. "The City of Burlington has been nationally recognized for being one of the most "Livable Cities In the Country", yet there are still thousands of families living in poverty and thousands of workers still being paid poverty wages. The Burlington School workers victory is a victory for the entire community. You cannot have a livable city without livable wages," says James Haslam, Director of the Vermont Workers' Center who helps coordinate the Burlington Livable City Coalition. "We know our city will be a better city when all the jobs pay real livable wages, when the children of this city are not forced to grow up in poverty, and when people can live in dignity. We thank the many people in this community who supported this fight and have joined the Burlington Livable City Coalition"
The agreement will bring food service and custodial workers up to a livable wage over the next four years. This livable wage victory comes of the heels of a livable wage victory for the Burlington para-educators last fall and is a huge step forward in making sure Burlington remains livable for all its residents.
See Burlington Free Press story "Burlington school workers earn new contracts" May 7, 2008