WHEREAS:
AFSCME is committed to the twin goals of improving both the quality of and access to health care in the United States; and

WHEREAS:
The quality of health care will only improve in this country if health care workers gain a voice through unionization; and

WHEREAS:
Health care workers face increasing pressures and stress on the job due to the corporatization of medicine; and

WHEREAS:
AFSCME represents hundreds of thousands of hospital and health care workers and is committed to continue organizing health careworkers throughout the country; and

WHEREAS:
The International Union and Council 31 are jointly working to organize 8,000 employees at the Resurrection Hospitals in metropolitan Chicago; and

WHEREAS:
The Resurrection campaign has employed innovative pressure tactics to counter anti-union pressures that the employer has brought on its workers; and

WHEREAS:
Resurrection workers have stood strong in pushing back against the coercion of their employer and have built a strong organizing committee; and

WHEREAS:
The lessons learned and the techniques employed in the Resurrection campaign can be applied to other health care campaigns.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue its efforts to enact nurse staffing ratio legislation at the federal and state level, along with other measures to improve the quality of health care; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will continue to work to improve access to health care by requiring not-for-profit hospitals to provide sufficient charity care to maintain the tax exemption they already enjoy; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will continue its groundbreaking campaign to represent Resurrection employees, as well as initiating other campaigns to organize hospital and health care employees throughout the country.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY: Tracey Abman, Delegate
AFSCME Local 2199, Council 31
Illinois