Sweeney Discovers That Health Care
Is a Big Problem for Working Families

After a dozen years in office, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the 48-member Executive Council have finally figured out what every working family and union member have known all too well and for years: that tens of millions of Americans are without health care (the latest figure is a record 47 million), and millions more are having to give up their insurance, because health care costs have been rising 7 percent a year.

So what is the AFL-CIO belatedly doing about this? On Labor Day, Sweeney announced, with great fanfare, a new campaign that will “put the full-force of the 10 million union members and three million union retirees behind winning high quality, secure health care for every person in America in 2009.”

But what does this campaign amount to? Are there any union members that don’t want universal health care and have to be convinced otherwise? What are union members to do in this stupidly devised, costly campaign? Persuade unorganized workers that health insurance is a good thing? What do our labor leaders expect to achieve in this campaign, except to create the illusion that they are making an appreciable difference in improving the lives of working people?

There should be open debate on the kind of universal health care that would best serve the American people. Of all the proposals, there is only one that calls for a not-for-profit approach (H.R. 676, introduced by John Conyers of Michigan). All the others provide a profitable role for insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms and HMOs, who are at least partly to blame for the health care crisis.

Why should we be dependent on the views of presidential candidates, who are happy to accept fat checks and favors from lobbyists for the insurance and drug companies? Isn’t the issue important enough that our leaders should hire the best experts to come up with a health plan that is the best deal for working people?

Our Leaders Use Deceit to Suppress Views of Members

Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win have conspicuously ignored and suppressed a rising grass-roots tide of support for H.R. 676 (“The United States National Health Insurance Act”), that now includes:

International Association of Machine and Aerospace Workers
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Pipe-Fitting Industry
American Postal Workers Union
National Education Association (independent)
Petroleum, Atomic and Chemical Workers International Union
United Auto Workers
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Laborers International Union of North America

The above unions alone represent 3.8 million union members. But this does not include members from a score of other unions in over 175 state federations, central labor councils and a large number of AFL-CIO, CtW and independent local unions.

These impressive endorsements of H.R. 676 represent at least 40 percent (probably more) of the entire union membership. They far outweigh the support for any other proposal. Yet not a word of this groundswell of members’ views has appeared on either the AFL-CIO or CtW web sites, or AFL-CIO Now. Sweeney and his staff act like they never heard of H.R. 676. It is a clear case of censorship on a scandalous scale.

It may very well mean that the real purpose of the AFL-CIO’s new health-care campaign is to kill any possibility that not-for-profit, universal health care will be an option, even if a majority of union members supports H.R. 676.

By their actions, our leaders have shown their contempt for the rights of union members and the basic principles of democracy. How shall we respond?

Our weekly column, “The World of Labor,” reports the struggles and victories of unions in countries around the globe. Check our web site: www.LaborEducator.org.