Greensboro city workers push for Medicare for All

Photo: Greensboro City Workers Union Vice President Brendan Parmenter-Wynands (left) speaks during a press conference outside the Service Operations Center on Monday. (photo by Jordan Green)

A small group of Greensboro public workers gathered outside the city’s Service Operations Center on Patton Avenue on the eve of the Super Tuesday primary to express support for Medicare for All.

Additionally, they are calling for a step pay plan — a
salary structure with standard progression rates established within a pay range
for a job — a grievance procedure.

The workers, all members of the Greensboro City Workers
Union, joined with counterparts in the North Carolina Public Service Workers
Union, UE Local 150, for coordinated action with their counterparts in Charlotte,
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Goldsboro and Rocky Mount on Monday evening.

“One of the reasons why healthcare is so high [is] because
is greed; it’s flat greed,” said Darryl Brooks, a field operations worker,
addressing about a dozen coworkers. “Doctors want a wife, a girlfriend…. They
want two houses, a boat and four cars. That’s why healthcare is so high is
because of greed…. So they charge what they want. Be real about it: It’s all
about the money.”

Brendan Parmenter-Wynands, vice president of the Greensboro
Public Workers Union said Durham City Council, Carrboro Town Council and the
Orange County Commission have adopted resolutions supporting Medicare for All.
Public workers in Greensboro would like their city council to do the same.

The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
— the Greensboro City Workers’ national parent union — has endorsed Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, Parmenter-Wynands said. UE 150, the state
union, has endorsed Erica Smith for US Senate. But speakers at the rally in
Greensboro didn’t mention any candidates by name, instead focusing on the
issue.

“Vote for candidates up and down the ballot who support
Medicare for All,” Parmenter-Wynands urged.

Parmenter Wynands said after the press conference that city
employees are not allowed to talk about politics on the job. But he said his
coworkers’ preferences in the Democratic presidential primary largely mirror
the range of views within the community at large.

Brooks said that with candidates talking about Medicare for
All, there’s a renewed opportunity to push Congress to make it a reality.

“We have a chance, yes,” he said. “As we all know, we have a
collapsible government; it’s not just one voice. But the president can be that
one voice saying, ‘Let’s reignite it,’ because it’s been doused. We need to
reignite it.”