Originally posted at the Huffington Post

In 2010, I was the Democratic nominee for US Congress for the 1st District of Virginia, which runs from about 20 miles South of DC to the Hampton Roads area.  In the Southern part of the district, the economy is dominated by the Newport News Shipyard where our nation’s nuclear aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are built and where workers in the late 70’s once clashed in a bloody dispute with management, fighting for their right to unionize under the United Steelworkers.  Workers at the shipyard had grown disgusted with their 10 cent raises and the dismal package of benefits they were given including a health care plan that would not cover your infant in their first ten days of its life.