WHEREAS:
There will be a newly-elected President and Congress with a mandate to improve the working and living conditions of all Americans in need; and

WHEREAS:
AFSCME has members working in the child care industry; and

WHEREAS:
There is still a need for affordable, quality child care by our members in all job classifications and families all across the country; and

WHEREAS:
In a 2002 AFSCME survey to 1,000 members nationally, 47 percent said they had children under the age of 18; and

WHEREAS:
20 percent of District Council 37’s 125,000 membership are estimated to be parents who have children between the ages from birth to 13, most of them single parents; and

WHEREAS:
In most European countries child care for working parents is more readily available and according to New York Times articles, productivity in those countries has been enhanced by child care; and

WHEREAS:
Childcare, Inc. in New York City, in citing the League of Voluntary Hospitals, whose employee union has a contractual child care fund, stated productivity has been enhanced by such a program; and

WHEREAS:
A recent study showed that early learning gained from pre-school child care generated roughly $4 for every $1 invested, decreased behavioral problems and crime, and increased productivity and academic achievement; and

WHEREAS:
There are long waiting lists across the country for families to gain access to affordable child care because demand has outstripped supply; and

WHEREAS:
Health care reform is now one of the top priorities in the United States and will be a priority for the next President and Congress; and

WHEREAS:
By all indications from the primary elections, the battle lines will be drawn between a not-for-profit, publicly-financed system covering all individuals and a private, for-profit health care reform that places emphasis on making individuals pay for their own insurance and having public tax dollars go towards subsidizing private health insurance companies; and

WHEREAS:
Nearly every poll shows that Americans support a government funded and provided universal health care system and would be willing to pay for it in higher taxes if necessary; and

WHEREAS:
As is the case with the public health system in New York City,  where the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is properly supported and funded, a public health system can out-perform a private system in quality and cost containment; and

WHEREAS:
There is a crying need for more access to quality health care for both the poorest and middle class communities. This is true in rural areas, medically-depleted areas, such as South Central in Los Angeles, and heavily medically-concentrated New York City. This is also true in Massachusetts, where the drive for universal health care has led to an overflow of patients and not enough capacity to serve them; and

WHEREAS:
It is not enough then to fight for universal health care without fighting for increased access capacity, including for more health care facilities, doctors and health care workers; and

WHEREAS:
There is a growing need for more multi-lingual health care access. The national population is increasingly become multi-lingual and so there is a critical need for a health care system that is both culturally sensitive and provides translation/interpreting services by trained employees.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME and its affiliates renew and make a top priority the fight for a universal health care system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME place emphasis on actively promoting public health insurance programs as the most cost-effective way to provide quality health care; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME include access as one of the listed principles of health care reform; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME and it affiliates actively promote increased access to health care by fighting for more quality health care facilities that provide extensive multi-lingual services where appropriate and an expansion of a unionized, trained health care work force; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME initiate a concerted campaign to advance these goals beginning with endorsing existing and future legislation that calls for universal, affordable, quality health care such as Congressman John Conyers’ bill, H.R. 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All and Congressman Pete Stark’s bill, H.R. 1841, AmeriCare Healthcare Act, and state legislation such as the Health Wisconsin initiative; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME and its affiliates enter in coalition with health care activists and organizations such as Universal Health Care Action Network, health care providers, community groups, like-minded business associations, other unions and legislators to actively write, sponsor and fight for a public universal health care system at the city, state and national level; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
In addition, AFSCME and its affiliates should materially support coalitions that are fighting for universal health insurance as needed.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY:Eddie Rodriguez, President and Delegate
Loretta Y. Jones, Recording Secretary
Ralph Palladino, Delegate
AFSCME Local 1549, Council 37
New York

Joel Schwartz, Delegate
CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000
New York

Michael D. Murphy, President and Delegate
Richard C. Badger, Executive Director and Delegate
AFSCME Council 40
Wisconsin