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Workers Uniting union counters the lies in US health care debate

19th August 2009

Workers Uniting, the world’s first international union, has launched an attack on the lies and misinformation being spread in the US by opponents of President Obama’s health insurance reform plan.

In an online campaign, the union representing three million working people from every industrial sector in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada and the Caribbean, is demonstrating the malicious distortions being spread about the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

Workers Uniting is a partnership between Unite from the United Kingdom and the United Steelworkers (USW) from the United States and Canada.

In communications to its members on its website and on social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, Workers Uniting has highlighted that the propaganda being spread about the NHS is totally unfounded.

Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers, said: “Health insurance reform is about human and civil rights – exactly what Workers Uniting was created to fight for. The debate in the United States has been intense, at times unfairly focused on the many myths and mistruths being circulated by opponents, including those about the universal health care system in the United Kingdom. Our sisters and brothers in the UK know the truth and are helping set the record straight. “

Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, said: “The NHS is the pride of the UK and workers will not stand by while rich insurance companies spend millions of dollars to promote their smear campaign. We are proud of our universal healthcare system and view the attempts to represent the NHS as inefficient as outrageous.”

Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary, said: “Workers Uniting will work to promote the principles of universal healthcare provision for all, free at the point of delivery. Our campaign will show workers in the US how an egalitarian and effective healthcare system must be an aspiration for every fair and decent society. The claims being made that a national healthcare system will somehow fail the old, or judge the lives of some as unworthy of treatment, is total nonsense.”
 
To view the myths being dispelled by Workers Uniting visit the union website: www.workersuniting.org.

ENDS

Contacts: 
Saba Mozakka, Unite, 020 7420 8916, saba.mozakka@unitetheunion.org
Connie Mabin, USW, 412-562-2616, cmabin@usw.org

Unite, the UK’s biggest union and the USW, the largest private sector union in the USA and Canada, have signed an agreement creating the first global union. The agreement to form a global union was initiated by the leaders of the two unions in response to the challenges of globalisation.  In particular, the casualisation of employment and reductions in pay and conditions for millions of working people in North America and Europe.