Vermont Workers' Center

The last night of discussions on poverty in America—”The Fight of the Poor”—directs attention to groups and communities organizing a movement to end poverty across the country. The segment includes interviews and discussion of the United Workers in Baltimore, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida, Domestic Workers United in New York, Direct Action Welfare Group in West Virginia and Iraq Veterans Against the War, The Vermont Workers Center, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign.

Over the last year Media Mobilizing Project has developed a strong relationship with the Vermont Workers' Center. The Vermont Workers’ Center has fought a pioneering grassroots human right to health care campaign, which has brought Vermont close to adopting a new health care system that works for everyone. Yet at this crucial point, as the opposition is about to pour millions into the state, the Workers’ Center finds itself short on resources, having put everything into the two-year struggle that built the movement.

Because the federal health reform bill signed into law today (Tuesday, March 23)  fails to make health care truly universal and equitable, human right to health care advocates across the country are pushing their state legislatures to implement more effective and comprehensive measures at the state level. In Vermont, for example, the Vermont Workers’ Center’s Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign has galvanized legislative action with a powerful grassroots organizing and advocacy strategy.