(ISSN 0023-6667) Unions: Bush SCHIP veto needs override (PAI)- Union leaders joined to generate 1 million phone healthy start because mom a bipartisan chorus urging calls to 43 lawmakers for the can’t afford prenatal care, chil- Congress to override President override. Backing SCHIP is the dren who can’t get immuniza- George W. Bush’s veto of leg- first part in the federation’s tions and proper dental care islation expanding health care year-long campaign to make because mom and dad can’t coverage of poor children. universal affordable health care afford it. And it doesn’t have to Bush, who decried the bill the #1 domestic issue in 2008. be this way.” as “socialism,” vetoed the “This is about helping chil- Comparable industrial Democratic-run Congress’ leg- dren, period,” Sweeney declar- nations cover everyone, includ- An Injury to One is an Injury to All! islation renewing and expand- ed. “No child should go with- ing kids, and do better on ing the State Childrens Health out health care...if nothing is measures of childrens’ health, WEDNESDAY VOL. 113 Insurance Program (SCHIP). It done, the situation is only Cortez noted. The other nations OCTOBER 10, 2007 NO. 8 would add millions of poor and going to get worse. The cost of “have a system that guarantees near-poor kids to the 6 million health care is soaring out of healthcare to everyone, regard- already covered. control and wages for workers less of your ability to pay and House Speaker Nancy can’t keep up. Our children whether or not you have insur- Pelosi (D-Calif.) set Oct. 18 as need a lot more than rhetoric to ance or a job,” said Cortez. the date for an override vote. grow into healthy and produc- Those systems are central gov- SCHIP backers started lobby- tive adults. If Bush really wants ernment-run, as is the system, ing--and a $3 million ad cam- to show commitment to chil- in HR 676, that her union paign--to find extra Republi- dren’s health, he should give advocates in Congress. cans for the two-thirds majority them annual check-ups, vacci- “Until we can enact such needed to overturn the veto. nations and regular contact genuine reform” of health care AFL-CIO President John with a pediatrician...He should- to have the government --not Sweeney called the veto “dis- n’t just give them a press the insurers--run it, “probably graceful.” His assistant, Gerald release.” not under this president, we Shea, said the federation wants Change to Win Chair Anna ought to at least protect the Burger, whose Service Em- most vulnerable in our society Congressman Jim Oberstar, Gerald and Eleanor Heaney, American ployees union has the largest and expand the State and Senator Amy Klobuchar shared the joy of the Duluth number of health workers, Children’s Health Program Federal Building being named in Heaney’s honor Saturday. dream failing said,“Only this president now,” Cortez concluded. would think healthcare for kids Duluth’s federal building us poll says is a bad idea. With one stroke (PAI)--Some 70 percent of of his pen...Bush has sent the named for Gerald Heaney voters surveyed see the message loud and clear that he In a Saturday ceremony befitting a truly great American, the American Dream of good jobs, doesn’t care that because of Duluth Federal Building was renamed the Gerald W. Heaney a secure retirement, access to him, millions of kids won’t be Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse and Customhouse. quality health care and a better able to see the doctor. Shame Former Vice President Walter Mondale, well over a dozen future for their kids, is failing, a on the president, and shame on federal judges, at least two dozen of Heaney’s 77 former law new poll says. Even more than anyone who lets him get away clerks, and countless other dignitaries came to Duluth to honor that strongly believe unions with it. Congress must fix what a man whose service to his country in World War II, to the can play a role in restoring it. Bush has broken and override labor movement, and to the federal bench is legendary. In the And voters say both political this indefensible veto. If they crowd you could find people like Minnesota Secretary of State parties are ducking the issue. do not, they will answer to the City Council Mark Ritchie, who like many had to be there, sitting quietly in Pollster Celinda Lake’s sur- American people.” At-Large respect and appreciation for Heaney’s lifetime of work. Among vey of 800 voters, for Change California Nurses Associa- tion Co-President Zenei Cor- Jeff Anderson the hundreds in attendance were a couple dozen members of to Win, was released Sept. 25. www.votejeffanderson.com Duluth’s labor community, who know his history as a labor “In a significant shift from tez, a registered nurse, said attorney before he was named to the federal bench in 1966. the politics of the last two Bush’s veto re-emphasized the Tony Cuneo A touching ceremony in City Hall’s foyer, and a marvelous decades, voters see a strong need for universal government- www.tonycuneo.com run health care--abolishing the luncheon in the fourth floor hallway of the new Heaney role for government, particular- District 1 Building, had many reaching to dab tears away. ly the next president, to take insurance industry--for every- With the love of his life, Eleanor, his wife of 62 years, and action to ensure the survival of one. “It sounds like it’s the Laurie Johnson generations of his family at his side, Gerald Heaney, as he the American Dream,” she said president, not the Congress, www.johnsonforcouncil.org who is playing politics with our always has, took everything in stride, as their friend Jane Lake’s survey agrees with District 3 Freeman, widow of Governor Orville Freeman, said of him. attitudes she found in two pre- children's health. Nurses are “I’m kind of overwhelmed,” Heaney said to the gathering. vious polls but the percentage tired of seeing our patients left Sharla Gardner “On December 1, 1966 I was named to the court. They were saying the dream is failing is up behind: Infants who can’t get a www.gardnerforcouncil.org very nice to me, not like it is today” he said of judicial appoint- and politicians aren’t listening. District 5 ment hearings. He said the great joy of being on the court was “Swing voters are especial- District 5 the collegiality of working with his colleagues on making deci- ly mixed, with 39% not seeing POETS GO TO Russ Stover sions and “making a difference in the lives of ordinary people. either party really addressing More endorsements may I hope that I’ve been able to achieve that goal.” the issues they care about. WORK be considered Oct. 11. There were no doubters in the crowd. Mondale said he Democrats do have an advan- thought Heaney should have been on the U.S. Supreme Court tage over Republicans with PleasePlease VVoteote because of his intellect. “People are still being affected by what swing voters (33%-13%) and he has done,” Mondale said. among all registered voters Tuesday, Nov. 6 Congressman Jim Oberstar did a fine job of hosting the cer- (40%-18%).” emony, which had nine speakers in a crowded City Hall foyer, By and large, poll respon- where the ceremony was moved because of the weather. dents again blame corpora- Oberstar said Heaney’s story includes his support of the tions, greedy CEOs and a gov- rights of labor, the interests of the poor and downtrodden, that ernment that serves them for he not only issued the school desegregation ruling, he presided the decline. Two-thirds said if over it for 20 years after countless challenges, including seven the next president takes the to the U.S. Supreme Court by the State of Missouri alone. issue seriously, the president “He changed the opportunities for an entire generation, for would make “a lot” or “some” thousands of thousands,” Oberstar said. difference in restoring the Heaney’s battle to ensure a quality education to all dream. But they’re even more Continued on page 8 confident unions could help. See story page two Labor to join Lake Superior Writers in Poets Go To Work The Vermilion Trail Decades ago, even a hun- There will be a welcomed Sutton, “Poets Go To Work” Johnson is a retired mem- by Sheila Packa dred years ago, unions played a return to cultural pursuits this will bring five of this area’s ber of the Duluth Federation I am leaving much more significant role in month as this area’s labor com- finest poets to read their work of Teachers. the Mesabi Iron Range the lives of working families. munity joins with Duluth Poet and a favorite or two each has Packa is an Education on the same trail Social and cultural events put Laureate Barton Sutter and The by other poets. Sutter will be Minnesota member on the on by unions dominated work- Lake Superior Writers group joined by Ellie Schoenfeld, faculty of Lake Superior that a gold prospector ers’ evening and weekend cal- for an evening being called Don Dass, Jim Johnson, and College. came in on, endars. Increases in wages, “Poets Go To Work.” Sheila Packa. Dass is self employed and with a compass gone benefits, and union density It will take place Saturday, “We’ve been wanting to do a member of the Minnesota awry and red dust resulted in families acquiring Oct.