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CONTACT:
Heidi Mitchell/603-289-6333
hmitchel@labor2008.org

New Hampshire AFL-CIO Reveals Plan to Educate Union
Voters on McCain’s Poor Economic Record
Working Families to Go Door to Door in Manchester on Saturday to Expose
McCain’s Disastrous Health Care Plan

(Hooksett, NH - May 16) The New Hampshire AFL-CIO yesterday hosted a
teleconference with reporters across the state to discuss the impact
Sen. John McCain’s disastrous health care plan would have on New
Hampshire’s working men and women.  Also released were plans for a
statewide effort to educate union voters on McCain’s economic record
and proposals and appeal to him stand up for working people.

“We have an education program to make sure our members understand
where candidate’s stand on the issues that matter to us,” said Mark
MacKenzie, President of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. “Taxing our health
care benefits at a time when working families are already struggling
would worsen the economic crisis.”

Over 130 union members will meet at the New Hampshire AFL-CIO
headquarters in Hooksett Saturday morning.  They will spend the day
going to more than 1,600 union voter households in Manchester and
Hooksett to discuss how McCain’s disastrous health care and economic
policies would affect workers in New Hampshire.

Health care expert Stephen Gorin, PhD, MSW joined MacKenzie and two New
Hampshire workers to discuss how Sen. McCain’s plan would undermine
the current system of employer-based health care and leave workers
behind.  Gorin cited that apart from Medicare, employer-based health
care is the largest source of health care coverage in the United States.

“Many people have predicted that after a few years of taxing health
care benefits no employers would offer employer-based coverage anymore.
McCain’s plan does nothing to address the rising cost of health care
and with it we’ll see a larger number of people who will go without
the health care they need.” said Gorin.

At 90 years old, World War II veteran and retired Manchester
firefighter Lieutenant Clarence “Timer” Blais has survived a heart
attack, battle with prostate cancer and cataract surgery.  Despite his
pension he said he’s forced to live in subsidized housing and pays
$305 a month for health care.

Claudia Brown, a passport call center employee laid off by AT&T last
Friday, will lose her family’s health insurance at the end of the
month, she said.  She and her husband have a 16-month-old daughter,
Sarah.  Her husband’s salary is just enough to disqualify the
Brown’s from the New Hampshire Healthy Kids program.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do, we’re hoping we can
maybe afford to get health insurance for our daughter and my husband and
I will go without.” said Brown.  “Hopefully something better will
come along, other than taxing us on a situation that already is
taxing.”

“In the end, the people of the state of New Hampshire are going to
reject a program that doesn’t improve their health care, doesn’t
make their situation better, doesn’t control costs and does nothing
more than put us in more peril than we are already in.” MacKenzie
said.

 “McCain Revealed,” is an AFL-CIO national campaign to expose Sen.
John McCain's economic record and plans to continue the failed Bush
economic agenda, and to generate public pressure on him to support
policies that advance working families’ interests. To learn more, go
to www.mccainrevealed.org