Another common theme among my MSNBC-watching centrist Democrat friends is that they don't believe union members support Medicare for All. They give personal stories of union-family friends (are these stories or stories of stories?) who got million dollar treatments they don't believe they would have gotten from Medicare for All. (How many people get such treatments anyway? I tend to believe that such things are uncommon, and when people tell such stories they are most likely not talking about themselves but what they themselves have heard on the corporate media.)
The truth is at least as hard to nail down as such stories. Some unions support M4A, others don't, and the same is true of union members, with some members of some unions opposing their union's stance.
As an example, AFL-CIO in both Texas and Massachusetts have endorsed Medicare for all, but national AFL-CIO has not taken a position.
Labor for Single Payer (not itself a union) claims that 19 unions that represent 10 million workers have endorsed Medicare for All, and that this means more than half of union members in USA are members of unions that have endorsed Medicare for All. This is certainly true for American Federation of Teachers (I have verified that) and probably the rest. The list includes:
The truth is at least as hard to nail down as such stories. Some unions support M4A, others don't, and the same is true of union members, with some members of some unions opposing their union's stance.
As an example, AFL-CIO in both Texas and Massachusetts have endorsed Medicare for all, but national AFL-CIO has not taken a position.
Labor for Single Payer (not itself a union) claims that 19 unions that represent 10 million workers have endorsed Medicare for All, and that this means more than half of union members in USA are members of unions that have endorsed Medicare for All. This is certainly true for American Federation of Teachers (I have verified that) and probably the rest. The list includes:
- Amalgamated Transit Union
- American Federation of Teachers
- American Federation of Government Employees
- American Postal Workers Union
- Association of Flight Attendants
- Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes/IBT
- International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
- International Association of Machinists
- International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
- International Longshore and Warehouse Union
- Massachusetts Nurses Association
- National Education Association
- National Nurses United
- National Union of Healthcare Workers
- NY State Nurses Association
- PA Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals
- Service Employees International Union
- United Automobile Workers
- United Electrical Workers
- United Mine Workers of America
- Utility Workers Union of America
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