MEDICARE FOR ALL – UAW Region 1 Director LaShawn English
Presented by Frank Hammer, UAW Local 909 Shop Chairman, retired
Sept 19, 2026
Intro: LaShawn English was first elected UAW Region 1 Director in 2022, during the first direct elections in UAW history. She is the first woman, and first Black woman, to occupy that position. She was a pipefitter at her Stellantis plant in Sterling Heights, where she served as Local 1264 President for 3 terms. She was elected to her current position as part of a reform slate, and is now running for a second term. She was unable to personally attend the Moratorium Now! Event on Medicare for All and asked UAW retiree Frank Hammer to deliver her remarks on her behalf.
Greetings union siblings and allies. I am LaShawn English, Director of UAW Region 1 which represents over 50,000 active union members and over 100,000 retirees in 8 Michigan counties.
I’d like to talk to you about some very basic issues around healthcare.
The UAW has a long standing policy: Every working-class person deserves decent health care. No one should have to choose between seeing a doctor and putting food on the table. But that’s exactly what our current health care system does. It robs workers of dignity, drains union power at the bargaining table, and leaves too many of us behind. That’s why the UAW supports the Medicare for All Act—because no one should have to rely on the generosity of their boss to see a doctor or get the care they need.
Autoworkers know this all too well. During the Great Recession, Big Three automakers slashed retiree health care for new hires as part of bailout-era concessions. Now, a new generation of autoworkers are retiring years before they qualify for Medicare—but without employer-provided health care. As a result, they’re left in limbo, scraping by or skipping care entirely, too old to work but too young to die. Meanwhile, the companies are raking in record profits, lining shareholders’ pockets, and abandoning the very workers who make this industry run.
We need a system where everyone, union or not, has access to high-quality, comprehensive health care. Right now, unions like the UAW are forced to spend massive bargaining power just to defend what should be a basic human right. Companies try to force us to leave wage gains, retirement security, and work-life balance on the table just for our members to be able to have health insurance. Imagine what we could win if we didn’t have to fight tooth and nail just to see a doctor.
Winning that system – Medicare for All – is not only our mission, it’s a mission for the entire working class. Today, we see more and more of the enormous wealth that we generate getting funneled directly into the pockets of the billionaire class and into the military industrial complex and senseless wars. We have to ask ourselves: “Why can’t every man, woman and child have decent healthcare? What kind of society does not guarantee health care for all?”
We commend Senator Sanders, Representatives Jayapal and Dingell for their leadership on this legislation. We applaud vocal champions like Representative Ocasio-Cortez – and soon to be Michigan US Senator Abdul El-Sayed, if we get our way – who are pushing to make Medicare for All the law of the land. Because until we take profit out of our health care system, workers will continue to pay the price—with their paychecks, their health, and their lives.
I pledge to you the full support of the UAW in what will be a momentous battle for Medicare for All. We should recognize that this fight will not simply be in the electoral arena. Every major gain that poor and working people have won – Civil Rights, Social Security, Women’s Rights, LGBTQ Rights, the right to be union members – are all a product of deep and broad popular social movements. We will not go backwards. Onward to Medicare for All.
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