New Haven Independent: Can Health Care Win?

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New Haven Independent: Can Health Care Win?

April 28, 2006
By Melissa Bailey, The New Haven Independent

New Haven: "The number one issue he understands is health care," said Communications Workers of America Local 1298 President William HendersonThursday as he threw his union's endorsement to John DeStefano for governor. Will DeStefano's universal health care plan be, as his campaign desires, the issue to mobilize voters to the polls? Union leaders, citing carpal tunnel syndrome, burdensome premiums and denied sick leave, say "Yes."

"Health care has to be number one on everybody's list," said Henderson, speaking at a podium in front of City Hall Thursday afternoon. His union represents 5,400 telephone operators and technicians from SBC, Cingular, and Yale. He said the union would've endorsed DeStefano anyway, because "John's a labor man." But DeStefano's universal health care plan, Connecticut CAN, had the union energized.

"What we're seeing as a telephone company," said Henderson, is "a decline in health care." He said SBC has been "using an outside company to deny benefits to the workers." Miriam Rivera, the union secretary, said requests for sick leave are being passed through "independent, third-party medical examiners," who increasingly deny the requests.

Henderson's been pushing for better ergonomics for telephone operators, who take 800 to 1,000 calls per day. He said 20 to 50 workers have carpal tunnel syndrome, but the "company doesn't want to address this."

Rich Benham, who represents the 700 customer information workers in Local 1298, said a high percentage of those workers are single working parents, "young families struggling to get by." He hadn't "digested" the details of DeStefano's plan, but "universal health care will help all our workers. Massachusetts is getting universal health care; why not us?"

Local 1298 is the 30th union to stand behind DeStefano for governor. That's 120,000 workers, according to Derek Slap of DeStefano's campaign. His opponent, Dan Malloy, has five union endorsements amounting to 5,000 members, by Slap's count.

John Olsen, president of the AFL-CIO, showed up to support his "brothers and sisters" at local 1298. The AFL-CIO won't make an endorsement until June 26. But Olsen emphasized how the labor movement's swinging into action behind DeStefano, early. Of the AFL-CIO's approximately 110,000 workers, over half have now endorsed DeStefano, he said. He estimated between 60,000 and 70,000 of the workers have, through union endorsments, fallen in line behind "John."

"This is the most unified labor has been," said Olsen. "He's further ahead in an endorsement than any (gubernatorial) candidate has ever been for a Democratic primary" in the 18 years Olsen has served on the AFL-CIO. That makes DeStefano "the only one who has a shot" at the AFL-CIO endorsement, which requires a two-thirds vote.

That all said, Olsen recognized "Endorsements in and of themselves are not really important. Really the strength is the members and their families, that the message goes out to the families."

So will that health care message ring true at the polls? DeStefano's Slap is hopeful. He gave three reasons why Connecticut CAN will lure people to DeStefano's camp: It resonates with people who have jobs and are worried about health care premiums. For those who aren't, it resonates on "moral grounds." And it resonates with those who have pride in the state and wonder, "Why is Connecticut behind Massachussets?"

"It's one of the key wedge issues," he said. "One that symbolizes the difference between the three candidates." It's a concrete difference between candidates: "It's kind of what campaigns are about: What do people really want?"

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week showed more voters --30 percent -- citing health care than any other issue as a top priority in this year's election