Union Action Alert

The AFL-CIO blog has some great stuff.

I found the following over at Firedoglake and thought everyone should read it.

Here is a snippet to get you started:

When Your Gall Bladder Gets Sent to India, Have You Had Enough?
By: Jordan Barab
Guest Blogged By Tula Connell

Carl Garrett, a paper mill technician in Canton, N.C., needed gall bladder and shoulder surgery. So his employer, Blue Ridge Paper Products, came up with an increasingly less- than-novel solution: Send him overseas for surgery.

India, in this case.

Garrett volunteered to go. But let’s face it, how much of an option did he have? Let’s see: Agree with your employer and take your chances overseas, or risk paying out-of-pocket costs for the entire surgery in the United States? Duh.

But Garrett has a union, and the union didn’t stand for what the media and others have euphemistically dubbed “medical tourism.” The USW International Union (USW) persisted until management backed off the plan. The USW and Blue Ridge will work together to find an alternative within the United States.

Really, read the whole thing. It's quite inspiring.