Presidential candidate Kucinich addresses health care union
Originally published in the Herald Tribune
Presidential candidate Kucinich addresses health care union
By HILARY ROXE
Associated Press Writer
NORTH MIAMI, Fla. --
Before he had been in front of Florida's largest health care union for a minute Thursday, Dennis Kucinich had his jacket off, and seemed to be preaching.
"I was born into the house of labor," he told several hundred Florida union members. "I'm not here on missionary work."
In a speech that included walking through the audience, standing on a chair and rhyming his message, the Democratic presidential candidate wooed the vote of Florida's Service Employees International Union.
Kucinich, 57, is a former Cleveland mayor and state senator who went on to become a four-term Ohio congressman. He is considered a long shot in a field of nine candidates for his party's presidential nomination.
Explaining that he came from working-class roots, he focused on universal, single-payer health care, the end of America's participation in international free trade groups and the need to open America to immigrants.
Kucinich emphasized his belief that the country should break away from the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement.
"If you can't fix it, you have to nix it," he said.
The United States should negotiate trade agreements on better terms for workers, not just corporations, he said.
"We are together in the fight for workers' rights," he repeated in English, French and Spanish.
Asked how realistic he thought his health care plan was, he acknowledged it would require a change in the current Congressional makeup.
"I can't tell you I can, as president, do this alone," he said, explaining he could only accomplish such an ambitious goal "with a Congress the American people help to create."
Ingrid Francis, a nurse from Hollywood, said she planed to vote for Kucinich, even though she doesn't believe the doctors she works with would be skeptical about universal health care.
"If he wins the nomination, people will start listening to him," she said. "And the only way he can win is through these people right here - labor."
Helen English, a nurse from Melbourne, said she wanted to hear other candidates' positions before she decided who should win her vote.
"My main concern is health care," said English, who said she recently dropped her children from her health care plan because she could not afford the $472 per month payments. "I'm here to figure out what's going on now. I don't have any favorites yet."
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