The Troy Area Labor Council has submitted a resolution to the AFL-CIO September Convention, calling for the AFL-CIO to endorse HR 676 and to lobby against “… any fallback program of mandated insurance or public option plans which include the wasteful, for-profit insurance industry.”

The Troy Council’s resolution also asks that “the AFL-CIO help organize and financially support a ‘Healthcare is a Human Right’ Solidarity March and Rally in Washington, DC.”

The upstate New York labor council has sent copies of its resolution to all 491 Central labor Councils and Area labor federations requesting “… that your Labor Council join with us in submitting this or a similar resolution to this year’s AFL-CIO Convention.”

In the letter, sent to all 491Labor Councils, Mike Keenan, President of the Troy Council, said: “While the discussion of health care reform goes on in the White House and in the Congress, unfortunately, what we are hearing from the media are mostly the voices of the insurance industry and pharmaceutical lobbies; and misguided politicians who think that the healthcare crisis can be solved by either taxing healthcare benefits or mandating that we purchase health insurance.”

The AFL-CIO Convention will meet September 14-17th in Pittsburgh, PA. Labor Councils are entitled to vote in the convention. One hundred and twenty-seven Labor Councils have endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) and 75 co-sponsors.

The Troy Council’s letter is at: http://www.pefencon.info/HR676/TALC_Cover_Letter.pdf

The Troy resolution is at: http://www.pefencon.info/HR676/Resolution.htm