"SiCKO" Plays to Packed House

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Nearly hundred people packed the AFL-CIO’s Gompers Room Friday for a free lunchtime screening of Michael Moore’s Academy Award nominated film “SiCKO.” Our healthcare system “is costing thousands of lives every year,” said US House Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) in his introduction to the film. Conyers (middle left in photo) is author of the HR 676 bill, which would create a US universal single-payer healthcare system. Calling film “the way to educate for the future,” Conyers also expressed interest in working the DC Labor Filmfest for future screenings on Capitol Hill. California Nurses Association (CNA) Communications Specialist Donna Smith (second from right) – whose agonizing struggle with the broken US healthcare system is documented in “SiCKO” – also provided remarks. The screening came on the heels of the First Annual Health Care Forum presented by the Kaiser Permanente Health Care Institute at the National Labor College on Thursday; click here to read Mike Hall’s AFL-CIO Weblog report on the forum. The screening was presented by the DC Labor FilmFest and co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO, the Department of Professional Employees (special thanks to DPE’s Pamela Wilson), CNA, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Office and Professional Employees International Union and the United Steelworkers.
- report/photo by Andy Richards