Thursday, May 22 is Health Care Action Day

Reform organizations and unions set for action in support of health care for
all!

Telecom workers oppose corporate agenda to shift burden of health care costs
to employees

BOSTON, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Telephone employees will spearhead a
day of action across Massachusetts on Thursday, May 22 to protest efforts by
Verizon and many other employers to force workers to pay more for their health
insurance premiums or increase co-pays and deductibles.
The workers -- with support from the Jobs with Justice Health Care Action
Committee -- will rally for reforms so that working families have secure,
affordable health care coverage, even if they get laid-off, change jobs or
work part time. Verizon workers in Massachusetts are united in the IBEW and
CWA.
Events will be held in the following 17 cities and towns in Massachusetts:
Boston, Woburn, Braintree, Weymouth, Dedham, Dorchester, Watertown, Andover,
Methuen, Lawrence, Lynn, Danvers, Lowell, Brockton, Marlboro, Boylston and
Springfield.
Details about specific event times and locations can be found on the Jobs with
Justice website: www.massjwj.net/node/2328
Each event will feature a short presentation about how best to solve the
problem of rising health care costs. Workers will hold signs and pass out an
educational leaflet to the public. Throughout the day union members will wear
stickers on the job calling for "No Cuts in Our Benefits. Let's Fight for
Health Care for All!"
"Shifting premium costs and raising co-pays and deductibles for employees is
not a solution," said Russ Davis, director of Jobs with Justice. "It won't
hold down skyrocketing health care costs or improve the quality of care. It
only lets employers avoid their responsibility to work for real solutions."
"We need a 'Medicare for All' reform that would improve and expand our
national Medicare program to cover everyone and control costs more
effectively," said John Horgan, a 26-year Verizon technician and shop steward
with IBEW Local 2222. "Medicare's administrative costs are less than 5
percent, while overhead for private, employer-based insurance eats up about 30
percent of health care spending."
Jobs with Justice's Health Care Action Committee links workers' struggles
against insurance cost shifting and cuts in health care services to help build
a larger movement for comprehensive reforms.
CONTACT: Rand Wilson of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
+1-617 803-0799

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Rand Wilson of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
+1-617-803-0799