[lbo-talk] Stern calls on CEOs to solve health care crisis

[Jerry Monaco]

On 7/18/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Horse-and-Buggy Health Coverage
> By ANDY STERN
>
> Today I sent a letter to every CEO in the Fortune 500 asking them to
> make health care their national priority. I urge corporate leaders to
> come forward. Our union members -- your employees -- will work with
> you. The old idea that business and labor can't work together for the
> common good is as outdated as lifetime jobs. The Service Employees
> International Union is the largest health-care union in the country.
> Our membership includes nearly one million nurses, doctors, hospital
> staff, nursing home and home care workers. We know health care. You
> know business. Together, let's build a new 21st-century American
> economy.

This is not class struggle politics, to say the least.  And the Old
Trotksyist would condemn Stern for class collaboration and for begging
the ruling class, instead of mobilizing the working class, etc.

But really! Doesn't such begging make sense?  Isn't it in the interest
of some the really big corporations to externalize the cost of health
care by getting the federal government to take care of it?  I think
people on this list have written about this.

Jerry