Stethoscopes and Picket Lines

We must fight today for the kind of health
care system Americans deserve.

By Gerald W. McEntee

A couple of years ago the hot topic of debate in Washington was health care. The politicians fought over it day and night, making endless speeches and holding press conference after press conference. When all was said and done, the politicians had decided that the solution to our health care crisis was to do absolutely nothing. They decided to let the market take care of the problem.

And what was the result of their inaction?

Corporations have been taking over hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices. State and local governments have been left to their own devices and are now privatizing more and more health care facilities.

An unfortunate example of this is in Godfrey, Ill., where Council 31 is leading the fight at the Beverly Farm mental health facility.

In recent years, Illinois’ push to privatize mental health care has dumped an increasing number of patients into private facilities like Beverly Farm.

In 1994, 450 Beverly Farm employees voted overwhelmingly to join AFSCME. Since that vote, Beverly Farm has refused to recognize the union and has waged a war of intimidation against AFSCME members. Management has hired private security guards to stop employees as they enter and leave work, banned union officials from entering the property, and even fired the president of the local union.

But nobody pushes around the members of this union.

We have repeatedly taken Beverly Farm to court — and we have won. Nevertheless, management refuses to give our members their fundamental rights. No wonder a judge recently called Beverly Farm a "certified lawbreaker" and ruled that management has not "treated its employees [or] the union fairly."

But the fight is still not over at Beverly Farm.

And the fight has just begun nationally.

Our nation’s medical system is being devoured by faceless, profit-driven corporate giants.

AFSCME is leading the fight against corporate medicine and is giving all health care workers a renewed voice not only in the board room, but also in the emergency room, in the operating room and in the examination room where truly critical decisions about lives are made.

Across the nation, we are making a difference:

• AFSCME spearheaded a coalition of unions and consumer groups to stop corporate giant Columbia/HCA from buying Blue Cross of Ohio.
• AFSCME nurses in California stood up to block Columbia/ HCA’s takeover of Sharp Health-Care in San Diego by showing consumers that they were getting a bad deal.
• AFSCME members are standing up for themselves and their patients in Tucson, Ariz., where corporate for-profit medicine threatens one of this country’s finest health care delivery systems.

After AFSCME alerted President Clinton to the need to investigate the crisis in managed care, he created the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry. I am proud to serve as your voice on that commission. You can help in this process by sharing your opinion and experience with us through the health care survey on the back cover of this magazine.

As much as I intend to put the spotlight on managed care’s shortcomings, I also plan to put forward an alternative vision for our health care system: a system that empowers workers and consumers alike. Consumers should have the right to high quality, appropriate, timely treatment. Health care workers should not have to sacrifice their own well-being to help heal their clients.

I recently told our Nurses Congress in Washington, D.C., that AFSCME is a union that’s never run from a fight or walked away from an opportunity. We must fight today for the kind of health care system Americans deserve. Our slogan must be: "Quality. Quality. Quality." Each of us must go out and fight like hell to make it happen.