Three more labor organizations have gone on record in support of the Maine State AFL-CIO Federation’s call for the national AFL-CIO to convene a labor summit “to build a social movement powerful enough to win single payer.”

In New Jersey, the April meeting of the Bergen County Central Trades & Labor Council unanimously endorsed the Maine resolution. Separately, the Council’s Retiree Committee also endorsed the resolution. Paula Friedman, Chair of the Labor Council’s Retirees, said the Committee “…is in the process of drafting a letter to all other central labor councils within our state to endorse as well. Once we get a majority of endorsements, we will send it on to our state federation.”

In Oregon, the Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) unanimously endorsed the Maine AFL-CIO action with a resolution titled “Implement Campaign for Single Payer Health Care.”

The resolution will be forwarded to the Oregon AFL-CIO and the National Association of Letter Carriers 2010 Convention for concurrence. The national NALC and the Oregon AFL-CIO are both on record in support of HR 676.

The Maine convention resolution calls on the AFL-CIO to involve CLC’s, State Federations, and rank and file single payer union activists in the building of a single payer social movement and to provide resources no less than those spent on the recent health care reform effort.

The Maine convention action was in line with Resolution #34 adopted at the September 2009 AFL-CIO Convention which put the national AFL-CIO on record in support of single payer healthcare, such as HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare For All.

Maine AFL-CIO resolution: http://unionsforsinglepayerhr676.org/news_releases/2009-12-10

AFL-CIO Resolution #34 (PDF): http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/convention/2009/upload/res_34amend.pdf