AFL-CIO honors Vermont governor

Gov. Dean receives Wellstone Award for support
of AFT Healthcare organizing campaign
 

The AFL-CIO honored former Gov. Howard Dean in January for his support of the successful effort by AFT Healthcare to unionize nurses at Vermont's largest hospital. Dean was one of two recipients of the inaugural Sen. Paul Wellstone Award.

Dean, who is a contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, strongly endorsed the campaign by registered nurses to form a union at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington. He urged the hospital to honor the employees' choice regarding a union.

"Gov. Dean went so far as to say that if he 'were a nurse, [he] would vote to unionize,'" noted Roy Vestrich, president of the AFT's state federation, the United Professions of Vermont. "These would have been powerful words from any governor, but they resonated even deeper coming from a governor who is also an M.D. and familiar with the day-to-day lives of nurses and other health practitioners."

The Fletcher Allen campaign was a pivotal one both for AFT Healthcare and for the labor movement. Last October, the unit of more than 1,300 nurses at the hospital voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals/AFT. It marked the largest hospital union election win for registered nurses in the nation in almost a year.

Vestrich, who presented the award, noted that the former Vermont governor has a 100 percent AFL-CIO voting record on labor issues. Gov. Dean has "demonstrated a sincere commitment to Vermont workers" throughout his 20 years as an elected leader in Vermont, Vestrich said.

The AFL-CIO's Wellstone Award, named in honor of the late senator from Minnesota who died in an airplane crash last October, will be given to elected leaders who take a strong stand for workers' freedom to form unions and who fight for social and economic justice.

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