CWA in the Fight for Health Care Reform

In a teleconference with more than 200 local union presidents, CWA President Larry Cohen and Executive Vice President Annie Hill laid out the strategy to win real health care reform.

Cohen stressed that "the work we do over the next eight or nine weeks will be decisive as to whether we improve conditions for our members and our families. We can't sit and watch and hope. We have to be fired up and get this done," he said.

Cohen thanked CWAers for all the hard work they've already done:

• CWA activists had meetings with 207 members of Congress, plus another 107 meetings during the August recess.
• More than 3000 CWA activists attended a major health care rally in Washington, D.C.
• CWAers made more than 6,000 telephone calls to members of Congress, plus 2,000 handwritten letters.
• More than 800 CWAers attended town hall meetings on health care.

CWAers and allies demonstrate for real health care reform outside Staten Island office of Rep. Mike McMahon.

Annie Hill outlined the mobilization campaign going forward, encouraging locals to join the national call-in campaign set for Sept. 14-18. Calls from CWAers and allies will focus on telling senators that "we need real health care reform."

"Union meetings and gatherings are a good way to generate the phone calls to senators who need to hear from us and the hand written letters that get the most attention from members of Congress," she said.

"We need one-on-one conversations with our members, to remind them that doing nothing is not an option. We need reform for our members and our families, and we'll continue to focus on our four principles as Congress moves forward," she said.

The fight will get even hotter in October and November, and CWA will be ready with more actions to get the health care reform we need, she said.

More information is available at www.healthcarevoices.org.