Vermont Workers' Center Fighting for Workers' Rights!

MONTPELIER – Over a hundred Vermont union nurses and other healthcare professionals held a press conference calling on Vermont to lead the way in establishing healthcare as a basic public good for all Vermonters at the Statehouse today. The event is part of a growing grassroots campaign called the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, which is coordinated by the Vermont Workers’ Center. There was a live call from Haiti reporting on Vermonters disaster relief efforts as part of the press conference in addition to talking about healthcare in Vermont.

HAITI - Nurses and Technical Professionals at FAHC who are members of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the union of 2000 members at FAHC, are organizing donations and groups of volunteers to go to Haiti in the coming days, weeks and months to help with the relief efforts.

Press Conference: Vermont nurses and health professionals stand up on for Healthcare Is A Human Right.
12noon, Friday, January 29th, Statehouse Montpelier

A call for health reform
Statehouse crowd details system's faults, horrors, urges change.
by Dan Barlow
http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100113/NEWS/100119988

MONTPELIER – Hundreds of Vermonters filled the Statehouse Tuesday for a public forum on health care reform, with a vast majority urging lawmakers to adopt a single-payer system.

MONTPELIER, VT- A large crowd of over 350 people attended the joint hearings held by Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee and House Committee on Healthcare at the Statehouse Tuesday. Dozens of Vermonters testified urging lawmakers to pass the single-payer healthcare bill, S.88 and H.100 (see summary here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/168). Senator Bernie Sanders joined hundreds of members of the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, which is coordinated by the Vermont Workers' Center.

VERGENNES, VT- Forty-five people packed the Bixby Memorial Library on January 10 to take part in the Addison County People's Forum on Healthcare with Senator Diane Ayer and Representatives Michael Fisher, Diane Lanpher and Steven Maier. This forum was the tenth of its kind scheduled in recent weeks by the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign (HCHR), a statewide grassroots organizing effort coordinated by the Vermont Workers’ Center (VWC) which aims to change what is politically possible in health reform in Vermont.

The event including testimony from local residents who have been negatively affected by the healthcare crisis and explored the how Vermont can establish healthcare as a basic human right and win single-payer healthcare in 2010.

6 - 9PM, Tuesday, January 12th, Statehouse, Montpelier
The Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee and House Committee on Healthcare will be holding joint hearings on S.88 and H.100 (see summary here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/168). Please join us and bring everyone you can. Let us know if you can come, if you can testify, or if you want a ride or can give a ride. Contact us at (802)861-4892 or kate[at]workerscenter.org .

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/86826/ [listen online]

(Host) Several hundred people went to the Statehouse today to lobby for a single payer health care system.

Legislative leaders promised they would explore the single payer approach, but they didn't commit to having a vote on the issue this year.

VPR's Bob Kinzel reports.

(Kinzel) The rally was organized by the Vermont Workers Center and it was the culmination of a series of public hearings that the Center held throughout the state over the past few months.

4000+ Postcards Delivered to Statehouse to Kickoff Push For Vermont To Make Healthcare A Public Good

"We urge you to stand up and take the lead!"

MONTPELIER - More than two hundred Vermonters from the Vermont Worker's Center "Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign (HCHR)" filled the Cedar Creek room at the Statehouse today, coming from all over the state, to deliver thousands of postcards to the leadership of the State Legislature and to take action on the two single-payer healthcare bills, S.88 and H.100, and mend the broken healthcare system this year.

"We came here today because we seek to change what is politically possible in the healthcare reform process," said Susan Lucas, RN president of the nurses union at Copley Hospital. "We believe that healthcare is not a commodity but a public good shared by all. The time is now to make healthcare a basic fundamental right for every single person"

Vermonters, Farmers, and Migrant Workers all Chipping in to Support José Obeth Santiz Cruz's family after tragic farm accident and asking others to donate to the new Oveth Santis Cruz Memorial Fund

On December 22, 2009 in Fairfield, Vermont on Howrigan dairy farm young migrant farm worker José Obeth Santiz Cruz from the town of Las Margaritas, Chiapas, Mexico was killed in a tragic farming accident. On December 23rd, a Candle Light Vigil was held in Burlington in order to remember and honor the hard work, sacrifice and tragic death of this young migrant farm worker. [ Free Press Article ]

Please donate to the newly created "José Obeth Santiz Cruzz Memorial Fund" in order to honor the hard work, sacrifice and tragic death of migrant farm worker José Obeth Santiz Cruz. One hundred percent of your donation will go to José Obeth Santiz Cruz's family.