Vermont Workers' Center Fighting for Workers' Rights!

"Vermont's Own"

Friday March 5, 2010
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/ci_14522731

Vermont supporters of meaningful health care reform have been floating a well-tested format that deserves more than a cursory review this year. Regardless of what happens -- or doesn't happen -- in Washington, they say,
the state would fare better with its own single-payer health care option.

Any healthcare worker can tell you the truth about mandatory overtime: it is unsafe for their patients, and unsafe for themselves. We need to ensure that our health care workers are able to do their job to the best of their ability, which means keeping them healthy, and not forcing them to work grueling, extended shifts above the hard work they do every day.

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.

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"

MORRISVILLE, VT – More than fifty Lamoille County residents braved frigid temperatures to participate in a People’s Forum on Healthcare with Vermont Speaker of the House Rep. Shap Smith (D-Morrisville), Rep. Floyd Nease (D-Johnson) and State Senator Susan Bartlett (D-Lamoille County). This forum was the ninth 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.

http://www.timesargus.com/article/RH/20091214/NEWS03/912140360

Vt. health reform tops Jan. agenda

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: December 14, 2009

MONTPELIER – Vermont lawmakers will begin a new year of health care reform discussions with a massive public hearing at the Statehouse in early January.

When: 3-5pm, Sunday, Jan 10th

Hhere: Bixby Memorial Library, 258 Main St., Vergennes

What: This public event with Addison County state legislators including the House Committee on Healthcare Rep. Steve Maier will explore the how Vermont can establish healthcare as a basic human right and win single-payer healthcare in 2010. It is being organized by the Addison County Organizing Committee of the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, a project of the Vermont Workers' Center that seeks to change what is politically possible in healthcare reform efforts through grassroots organizing.

HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN
* * * NEWS RELEASE * * *

HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2009
Nurses, Sen. Racine and other Vermonters Say Vermont Must lead Way to Realize Right to Healthcare For All

BURLINGTON - This Human Rights Day press conference will release a report on how Vermont can lead the way in this country to realize the human right to healthcare. The Vermont Workers’ Center has convened forums with many hundreds of Vermonters and their legislators affirming the importance of establishing a universal, equitable and accountable healthcare system. Senator Doug Racine will join nurses and leaders of the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign to announce that the time has come for the State of Vermont to take a lead in healthcare reform, recognizing the shortcomings of current federal efforts.

Sen. Bernie Sanders will be attending, so should you!
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 .

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