August 4, 2003

Details on Candidates Forum At UFCW Convention

Democratic Party presidential candidates will appear in a forum on health care issues at the Convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union:

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Noon-5 p.m.

Moscone Center (South) – San Francisco

The forum will take place on an open stage with a roving chairman, Bill Press, of MSNBC’s “”Buchanan and Press,”” posing questions from workers in the audience to the candidates seated in director’s chairs on stage. The backdrop will be a convention hall filled with 5,000 rank and file delegates.

Confirmed participants are Dean, Gephardt, Kucinich, Mosley-Braun. Kerry & Edwards (via satellite).

SCHEDULE:

12:00 p.m. Pre-Forum Press briefing (Room 202 in Moscone Center) on health care issues featuring “”Behind The Numbers in The Health Care Crisis”” Among those participating will be a Wal-Mart worker without insurance, workers currently on strike for affordable health care, and health care workers.

2:30-4 p.m. Forum in main meeting hall. Candidates will field questions submitted by delegates in advance.

4-5 p.m. Post-forum press availability at the discretion of the candidates in Room 202.

Please arrive no later than 2:00 p.m. to pick up credentials in Press Room on Mezzanine. TV cameras will NOT be permitted in the convention hall. A mult box will be available to pull video and audio feed from UFCW cameras.

THE SPONSOR:

The 1.4 million-member United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) represents grocery store clerks, food processors and health care workers. The majority of UFCW members now have employer-paid health insurance – but the health care cost crisis, along with competition from employers who do not provide insurance threatens to destroy the employment-based health care system.