Fwd: CA Gov.'s Healthcare Summit Reveals Union Divisions "CTW Helping The Gov's Agenda"?

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

The California Nurses Association retains some of the last vestiges of what 
might be called unionism in the US.

Indeed, nurses around the world have a fairly enviable history of social 
activism, courageous agents of egalitarian social change.

Leaders of the remaining US unions are simply enemies of poor and working 
people. In the La Times article below, note the role of the CTA.

and, for those interested in the broader "Labor Movement" here is SEIU, my 
union, proclaiming that in the name of the civil rights movement, in the 
name of Martin Luther King, and in the name of those who fought and died 
for unionism in the thirties, they are going to organize some more prison 
guards (cops and guards being the among the fastest growing segments of the 
union movement, since, after all, two million working class people are in jail)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/us/26guards.html
bringing to life financier and railroader Jay Gould's comment, " I can hire 
one-half of the working class to kill the other half"

With the blessings of plenty of preachers.

But SEIU's Andy Stern found a better way. Gould can just pay Stern to use 
his union to jail the other half.

This is the logical and necessary working out of the theory and practice of 
US unionism. It is the culmination of a century of opportunism, racism, and 
nationalism.

Justice demands new kinds of organization.

best r




> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-summit25jul25,1,3939102.story?coll=la-headlines-california
>
>
>
> Gov.'s Healthcare Summit Reveals Union Divisions
>
>
> As some organizations picket the talks at UCLA, others thank 
> Schwarzenegger for convening the session on funding medical coverage.
> By Joe Mathews, Times Staff Writer
> July 25, 2006
>
> Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought together corporate executives, doctors, 
> medical administrators and academics Monday in what he said was an attempt 
> to find common ground on healthcare policy ? and in the process exposed a 
> divide among organized labor.
>
> The divide was apparent in the differing tones inside UCLA's 
> air-conditioned Covel Commons, where Schwarzenegger held his "Summit on 
> Health Care Affordability," and outside in the sweltering courtyard.
>
> Outside, the California Nurses Assn. ran a picket line of 40 people. "Any 
> union leader that crosses is a scab," said Rose Ann DeMoro, the union's 
> executive director.
>
> The head of the California Labor Federation, Art Pulaski, recalled last 
> year's fight with Schwarzenegger over his special election and denounced 
> the governor for not doing more to provide health coverage to Californians.
>
> Inside, the national presidents of three prominent unions ? the Service 
> Employees International Union, the United Farm Workers and the United 
> Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America ? took seats around a 
> long table with the 50 summit participants, and thanked the governor for 
> convening the session.
>
> (Don Attore, a top staffer of the California Teachers Assn., joined the 
> summit late and spoke during a lunchtime discussion about Schwarzenegger's 
> proposal, announced Monday, to install new medical clinics in as many as 
> 500 elementary schools.)
>
> The service employees, farm workers and teachers unions have endorsed 
> Schwarzenegger's opponent, Phil Angelides, who held a healthcare session 
> of his own at UCLA's Kerckhoff Hall.
>
> "No governor in recent California history has cared less about healthcare 
> or done less to expand and improve it than Arnold Schwarzenegger," 
> Angelides told the gathering.
>
> Angelides said if elected he would introduce legislation requiring 
> companies with more than 200 employees to provide health insurance. It 
> would, he said, be modeled after a law that California voters overturned 
> in 2004, which required companies to offer insurance or pay fees into a 
> state system that would provide coverage.
>
> In addition, Angelides said he would "force" drug companies to lower their 
> costs and require HMOs to devote more money to healthcare and "not 
> excessive profits and executive pay." The governor's campaign said such 
> measures would amount to a multibillion-dollar tax increase on business.
>
> The labor officials said they went to Schwarzenegger's event because of 
> the urgency of the issue, and not to help him politically.
>
> Arturo Rodriguez, the UFW president, noted that 85% of farm workers lack 
> health coverage. "People's lives are more important than what the election 
> politics are," he said.
>
> The divergent opinions reflect a recent split in the American labor 
> movement. While the unions protesting generally side with the AFL-CIO, the 
> three unions whose presidents were inside the Schwarzenegger summit are 
> part of the Change to Win coalition. Change to Win severed ties with the 
> AFL-CIO last year to place greater emphasis on organizing new members.
>
> Andy Stern, the service employees president, said late last week that he 
> saw no contradiction between his union's strong support for Angelides' 
> gubernatorial campaign and his participation in the Schwarzenegger summit.
>
> He said the governor should set a deadline for making changes to 
> healthcare and require companies to provide health coverage to employees 
> if they want to do business with the state. Stern, repeating a statement 
> that has been controversial within the labor movement, said that the 
> "employer-based" system of healthcare is dying and should be replaced with 
> universal coverage.
>
> Schwarzenegger paid close attention to his union guests. Stern was seated 
> next to the governor at lunch, and other union leaders were close by.
>
> DeMoro, the executive director of the nurses' union, which voted last year 
> to join the AFL-CIO, said union leaders who participated in the summit 
> were betraying their labor brethren.
>
> "It's really shocking frankly, because working people have been hit the 
> hardest by the governor's healthcare policy," she said. "It says the right 
> wing has been extremely effective in dividing the labor movement."
>
> Doug McCarron, the carpenters union president, called the criticism 
> "ridiculous. I want to see bipartisan programs and solutions for American 
> workers."
>
> Schwarzenegger himself has offered few detailed proposals on healthcare 
> during his nearly three years in elective politics. The governor said 
> Monday he was open to all ideas and ready to begin a thorough examination 
> of healthcare with an eye toward announcing a comprehensive proposal next 
> year if he is reelected.
>
> "I look at this as the first mile of a marathon run," Schwarzenegger said 
> of the summit.
>
> The discussion covered familiar territory in the national healthcare 
> debate, with the participants offering various reasons for high health 
> costs and the rising number of uninsured Californians ? now estimated at 
> more than 6 million.
>
> There was little mention of administrative and prescription drug costs, 
> often blamed as reasons for rising healthcare costs. Anthony Wright, 
> executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group 
> that has been critical of the governor's record on healthcare, told the 
> summit that he found the entire discussion "surreal."
>
>
> Times staff writer Robert Salladay contributed to this report.