NYT: For Unions, Labor Day Is Health Care Rally Day

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/for-unions-labor-day-is-health-care-rally-day/

By Steven Greenhouse

The nation’s labor unions seem to be approaching this Labor Day more as Health Reform Lobbying Day than as a traditional holiday.

With President Obama scheduled to speak at a union-sponsored picnic in Cincinnati on Monday, labor advocates are spending the weekend painting and printing signs in support of a health care overhaul. That includes labor’s pet provision: the public-insurance option. Thirty thousand union members are expected at the picnic.

Elsewhere Monday, the Greater Boston Labor Council plans to turn its annual labor breakfast into not just a memorial for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, but a mobilization for his lifelong cause: universal health coverage. Unions expect thousands of demonstrators at the breakfast-cum-rally.

Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union is sponsoring “Let’s Get It Done” Labor Day health care demonstrations in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Texarkana, Ark., Rapid City, S.D., and several other cities. But the union also wants its members to save some energy for Tuesday and Wednesday, when it hopes they will deluge Capitol Hill with thousands of phone calls.

The unions want not only for wavering Democrats to stand by the health overhaul. They are also pushing President Obama to sell his health plan more vigorously. “It’s important for him to get his message out across the country,” said John Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. president.