PHILADELPHIA, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Henry Nicholas, president of the 150,000-member National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees AFSCME, AFL-CIO, announced today that his 16000-plus members of the Philadelphia local affiliate 1199C, its retirees and members of the United Child Care Union across Pennsylvania will support Senator Barack Obama in the April 22 Democratic primary.
"We need change," Nicholas told delegates and guests at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, as he introduced Obama as "the candidate that will raise the labor movement to new heights" and the candidate "who has been on the picket lines, not talking about it, but walking on the picket lines with workers fighting for the right to have a union."
Noting that 8000 workers lost jobs in Pennsylvania in February "and that is the wrong way," Nicholas told the packed auditorium. "Those of us in the labor movement have a duty to be the social conscience for those who can't help themselves. Who will look out for those who are not middle class?" he asked.
In announcing the endorsement, Nicholas said, "If we in the labor movement rise to the occasion and latch on to this new movement that's putting everybody together, we will have given birth to a new labor movement in America and we need that. I stand here this morning to cast my lot - to put my organization the hospital workers solidly behind Barack Obama.
"By doing this, there's a message because the entire organized healthcare infrastructure in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania -- homecare, healthcare and childcare -- is now united behind Barack Obama."
National Union 1199C
