RN and longtime health care and labor activist Betsy Zucker brings us some major good news in the campaign for single payer, including a groundbreaking victory in Vermont and a change of direction from labor's top organizational leadership. For more info on the upcoming training for single-payer advocates (Saturday June 25th, 10 am) contact Portland Jobs with Justice. (See also this recent article from Labor Notes, "Still Paying Through the Nose, Labor Campaigns for Single Payer.")
Then, bellhop Marc Norton, who worked for almost twelve years as a bellhop at the Hotel Frank in San Francisco tells how the new hotel owners have tried to break the longtime union, and how workers there are fighting back (check out their web site hotelfranksf.info and on Facebook Boycott Hotel Frank). Portland IWW member Noah is helping organize a solidarity rally at Portland's Hotel Lucia (400 SW Broadway, Friday June 17th, 4 pm, portlandiww@gmail.com).
(Image credits: Left: Trumka and Kucinich at Labor Campaign for Single Payer meeting, http://www.laborforsinglepayer.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130:afl-cio-welcomes-labor-campaign-for-single-payer; Right: Hotel Frank demonstration, http://hotelfranksf.info/photos.html)
- KBOO