(The following is a message from Jeff Rechenbach, CWA Executive Vice President)
The current health care system isn't working for our workers, our retirees, or our employers.
Unfortunately, the problems are too big to solve at the bargaining table. We need to reform the system to get health care we can all count on and this will only happen if we build the power to elect the right leaders and hold them accountable.
CWA has analyzed the political landscape to determine the critical places where we need to be involved in 2008. We're focusing our resources in those areas and putting CWA members on the ground.
Learn more about CWA's efforts in your area by visiting our Health Care Campaign website:
www.healthcarevoices.org
Here is the inside scoop on how our new program works:
We're training CWA members to be district, state, and Congressional district campaign coordinators, and sending them to locals to conduct intensive workshops on what's at stake in the fight for health care reform. In the workshops, attendees will discuss what is wrong with our health care systems and what we can do together to fix it. They will also talk about the Employee Free Choice Act and why it is critical to the future of our union and our country. We expect to connect with over 20,000 CWA members and retirees through these workshops!
In the weeks and months ahead the campaign coordinators will also bring CWA leaders into Congressional offices and bring legislators to membership meetings -- so that we can hold our elected officials accountable for passing the Employee Free Choice act and fixing the health care system.
Through efforts like this, we are building our Stewards Army to unprecedented levels in 2008, creating a group of informed activists who will mobilize their CWA brothers and sisters for political, legislative, and union activities. We're teaming up with our brothers and sisters at the AFL-CIO and other labor allies to create a mass movement for our reforms.
Even if there isn't an coordinator in your area right now, you will have opportunities to get involved and make a difference.
You are on the front lines of building this political movement. Go to website, click on the map, and be part of the movement:
www.healthcarevoices.org
This campaign isn't about talk -- it's about action. It's the largest effort of its kind that we've ever undertaken, but that's because there is so much at stake.
