Article: Health care at heart of many labor fights; Contracts that require paying more for coverage push workers to action.(Business)

Byline: JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN Associated Press

STRATFORD, Conn. - Michael Blake, one of more than 3,000 striking Sikorsky Aircraft employees, sat in the cold on a noisy picket line this week and worried about his latest tumor.

"Two days before the contract, I had another one pop out on my arm," said Blake, 57, who has cancer. "I have to stay on this medication the rest of my life."

Using a makeshift bench supported by tree stumps, he rested his arthritic legs, a side effect, he said, of his cancer medication. A fire burned in a trash can as workers shouted over a megaphone for better medical benefits.

For Blake and other workers around ...

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