Names of the Dead

I am a pastor and met the wife of John on January 26 2004, the day I spoke at an event supporting Los Angeles grocery workers. In October 25,000 grocery workers had gone on a 4-day strike to protest the gutting of their health care benefits, capping benefits for chemo-therapy, among other things. Four grocery store corporations then punished the union for the 4-day strike by locking out 70,000 grocery store workers. The supermarkets stopped making payments to the joint union-company health fund and drained it of funds by the end of the year. When I met John's wife, the lockout had already lasted three months she was holding John's picture and thanking me for standing up for them. She told me John had died two weeks before when their health benefits had run out. She confessed they couldn't afford the medications that kept her husband alive. Thank you Congressman Grayson for helping me honor John's life and the millions of workers who join together, often at great risk to themselves and their families, to fight for just wages and affordable health care. Please fix our broken system!